Quote:
Originally Posted by mcl
So, would you pay hardback prices for a mass-market paperback released day-and-date with the hardback?
No, you wouldn't.
Would you pay hardback prices for a mass-market paperback released a few months after the hardback?
No, you wouldn't.
What we object to is using the hardback price as the basis for pricing ebooks. They're not the same thing. No more than a MMPB is the same thing.
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Part of the reason hardcovers cost more than paperbacks is because they are released first.
I buy books for the content, not the container. If the paperback was released day and date with the hardcover at standard paperback prices it would cannibalize hardcover sales because people could get the same content for less.
The $15 price for ebooks is based on the idea that getting the content before the mass market paperback is released is worth a premium over the price of a mass market paperback.
It's more than I am often willing to pay - but it's $10 less than the standard price of a new hardcover, and $7 more than mass market. At the very least it sounds like a possible place to start, even if it doesn't work out.
A lot of the these complaints over price are beginning to sound really petty to me. It's like people are saying "Ebooks have no production costs so all we should pay for is the content and that's not worth very much either, so they need to be very cheap."
As someone who's written novels, I find that cheapening of the value of my time, effort, and creativity very disheartening.
In the meantime, I have a book I need to be ghostwriting, so I will try to bow out, but I doubt I'll be able to.