MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New John Sargent blog post on e-book pricing

bgalbrecht · 03-13-2010, 01:42 AM

I've always understood that the publishers (except for Baen, perhaps), want to pay for most of their fixed costs for books upfront with an more expensive hardcover edition, and then release lower cost editions later for the budget-minded people willing to wait. That's how the book business has always worked in the past. That's why I don't have a problem with them either viewing the ebook as a budget edition, and delaying the release, or pricing the ebook comparable to the hardcover initially, and repricing the book to the budget edition when the budget edition comes out. My problem with MacMillan and the other big publishers has been in the haphazard way they treat ebooks. I think they're making a big mistake with the agent model, because I don't think they'll budge on the ebook price when there's heavy discounting on the hardcover edition, and John Sargent's already made it clear that there will be no guarantee of price parity between the MMPB and the ebook. Maybe there will be, or maybe they'll just price the ebooks at $9.99, because that's all John Sargent has promised in his blogs.

03-13-2010, 01:42 AM	#11
bgalbrecht Wizard Posts: 1,806 Karma: 13399999 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: US Device: Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Clara HD, Kindle 4	I've always understood that the publishers (except for Baen, perhaps), want to pay for most of their fixed costs for books upfront with an more expensive hardcover edition, and then release lower cost editions later for the budget-minded people willing to wait. That's how the book business has always worked in the past. That's why I don't have a problem with them either viewing the ebook as a budget edition, and delaying the release, or pricing the ebook comparable to the hardcover initially, and repricing the book to the budget edition when the budget edition comes out. My problem with MacMillan and the other big publishers has been in the haphazard way they treat ebooks. I think they're making a big mistake with the agent model, because I don't think they'll budge on the ebook price when there's heavy discounting on the hardcover edition, and John Sargent's already made it clear that there will be no guarantee of price parity between the MMPB and the ebook. Maybe there will be, or maybe they'll just price the ebooks at $9.99, because that's all John Sargent has promised in his blogs.