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BooksForABuck · 08-01-2007, 02:32 PM

First, not all eBooks cost more than pBooks. Many small publishers (like www.booksforabuck.com) offer eBooks at prices significantly below paper prices. Many other publishers price their books at the same price regardless of media (which makes a certain amount of sense to me--the value is in the content, not the paper pulp, right?). For a variety of reasons, Amazon choses to discount some of its paper books while paying full wholesale to the publishers. They certainly could do this for eBooks too (through their Mobipocket subsidiary), but they choose not to do so. How is this publisher greed.

On the notion that publishers add no value, let me suggest that the quality of the edited material publishers generate is significantly higher than the quality of the input we receive. Publisher value comes from: (1) wading through the slush pile to pick works that meet our quality standards; (2) working with the author to edit the works to an even higher quality level; (3) promoting the work (you can say this has no value to the reader, but you might never know about a great book without it); (4) Adapting the manuscript to various formats so readers can pick the format that best meets their device needs and personal preference; (5) Investing in all of the aspects of a business including paying author royalties, buying ISBNs, commissioning cover art (again, this may add no value to you, but many readers will not look at an eBook that doesn't come with attractive cover art).

Paper and eBooks are joint products. Looking at either as the 'marginal' product that could be priced at unit marginal cost misses the point. From a publisher standpoint, we need to make sure that our total revenue at least equals our total cost--and the best way to do this is frequently not to give away eBooks but to sell them at a price that yields a contribution to covering overall costs. (Sure some authors and publishers make money by giving away eBooks to encourage pBook sales. If you believe this is a permanent business model, you're essentially saying that eBooks will always represent an insignificant share of the market and that eBooks will always remain an inferior reading experience. Not only do I not agree with this, I believe that eBooks already represent, in many cases, a superior reading experience.

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

08-01-2007, 02:32 PM	#56
BooksForABuck Zealot Posts: 123 Karma: 150001 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Long Beach, CA Device: Color Nook, Kindle 2, Palm III, eBookWise, HP Jornada	First, not all eBooks cost more than pBooks. Many small publishers (like www.booksforabuck.com) offer eBooks at prices significantly below paper prices. Many other publishers price their books at the same price regardless of media (which makes a certain amount of sense to me--the value is in the content, not the paper pulp, right?). For a variety of reasons, Amazon choses to discount some of its paper books while paying full wholesale to the publishers. They certainly could do this for eBooks too (through their Mobipocket subsidiary), but they choose not to do so. How is this publisher greed. On the notion that publishers add no value, let me suggest that the quality of the edited material publishers generate is significantly higher than the quality of the input we receive. Publisher value comes from: (1) wading through the slush pile to pick works that meet our quality standards; (2) working with the author to edit the works to an even higher quality level; (3) promoting the work (you can say this has no value to the reader, but you might never know about a great book without it); (4) Adapting the manuscript to various formats so readers can pick the format that best meets their device needs and personal preference; (5) Investing in all of the aspects of a business including paying author royalties, buying ISBNs, commissioning cover art (again, this may add no value to you, but many readers will not look at an eBook that doesn't come with attractive cover art). Paper and eBooks are joint products. Looking at either as the 'marginal' product that could be priced at unit marginal cost misses the point. From a publisher standpoint, we need to make sure that our total revenue at least equals our total cost--and the best way to do this is frequently not to give away eBooks but to sell them at a price that yields a contribution to covering overall costs. (Sure some authors and publishers make money by giving away eBooks to encourage pBook sales. If you believe this is a permanent business model, you're essentially saying that eBooks will always represent an insignificant share of the market and that eBooks will always remain an inferior reading experience. Not only do I not agree with this, I believe that eBooks already represent, in many cases, a superior reading experience. Rob Preece Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com