Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemurion
No, the sales are not entirely additive.
Personal example: There are series where I bought the first few books in paper and later volumes in ebook format. These include Jack Campbell's "Lost Fleet" series, and Mike Shepherd's "Kris Longknife" books. I also switched my buying of Analog Magazine (which I've been reading for about thirty years) from paper to electronic format about five years ago.
These ebook sales are NOT additive. They replaced paper sales, because I would have continued these series regardless. They didn't replace hardcover sales because I would have bought in paperback, but they did replace paper sales.
I can't be the only person who does this.
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They are currently additive for all intents and purposes, because the percentage of sell-through for ebooks is so tiny.
In fact, the sell-through for ebooks is SO small, the profit is really ignorable, as are the costs. They don't make a difference either way since the impact is negligible. So, the publishers have two options:
1) Price ebooks reasonably, and hope to grow the market, or
2) Price ebooks unreasonably and hope to kill the market.
It's quite clear that publishers fear a nontrivial ebook market.