Quote:
Originally Posted by AnemicOak
It's great that Amazon took it upon themselves to lower the price to $7.99, but it doesn't change the fact that the list price from MacMillan is $14, just like it is for many books that have a $8 paperback list. Like the Wheel of Time books. The first book came out around 20 years ago. You can get a PB new for $8 or used pretty much anywhere for $1-$4 but the ebook is $14 list. Hopefully that'll go down when the new "model" starts, but we'll see.
|
Keep in mind this is still 'old-style' ebook pricing, not the agency model just yet.
I am guessing, and I could be completely wrong, that this is an artefact of older ebook sales contracts being based on contracts for paper books.
ie the publisher sets a cover price sells them to a wholesaler (or big chain) for a discount (rumour has it around 50% for the big ones) and the reseller pays its costs and gets its profits from the difference.
If the publishers try to keep the sales price of ebook and paper book at approximately the same level they have to keep in account the lower costs for the sales of ebooks and the corresponding higher discount the reseller can offer its customers. People are complaining that the costs of selling ebooks should be low and this Amazon pricing seems to confirm that.
There are additional complications if there is any difference on how the reseller pays the publisher,
ie when do they pay for paper books supplies and how long do they keep the money of the customer before making the payment to the publisher.