Quote:
Originally Posted by crewpsu
This would be true if they actually wanted ebooks to succeed. Remember they feel that sales of ebooks cannibalize from sales of paper books. If ebooks don't sell well what do they care? They didn't spend money to develop the readers for ebooks and they make no money on the sale of ebook readers. If ebooks fail and everyone goes back to buying paper copies and they still make money. There is currently no incentive for the publishers to lower prices. If the ebook doesn't sell they don't loose anything (it cannot cost that much for electronic copies of books, the author most likely submits them in this form nowadays). If the do sell at $15 or more, well thats just great. Many of you have said you would go to the library, which in turn would raise the demand for an item in that area and in turn the libraries would then purchase more of that author's books when they come out.
|
Well, you may be right. I am not entirely convinced though - I think there are probably a lot of different takes withing the publishing industry.
In any case, they may delay the adoption of ebooks, if that is the master plan, but it will still happen - the small publishers are getting more and more savvy, Amazon may now step up their efforts to make deals with small houses to keep a steady supply of content, and the e-only houses are getting better as well. I imagine Apple, once they get into the market, are going to want to simplify things - they know how to market, and they know that consumers like a fair price (there is some leeway for convincing people that a price is "good enough", but hopefully not that much) and reliable pricing.
From a pure entertainment perspective, it will be interesting if they manage to throw a monkey-wrench in the works, just to see what happens next.