Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamlet53
In my opinion there will not be a rational supply and demand pricing structure for e-books until the format as a percentage of the total sales of books grows enough to be a significant fraction of total sales.
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Actually, it's already happening.
How? Price is based on interactions of supply, demand, perceptions and marketing -- not exclusively on cost. And the ultimate arbiter is "what the market will bear." Nor, I suspect, do most consumers have the slightest idea of the true cost of publishing a book.
For example, paper is actually a fraction of the costs -- around 15% or so. Hardcovers do not cost $10 or $15 more than a trade paper to manufacture; the hardcover/paperback price differential is just window dressing on "rational" pricing -- namely, charging more for a book when demand is high. Which is pretty much what agency pricing will establish.
Nor am I aware of any company that is truly forthcoming about its costs. You may believe an iPhone "only" cost $150 because someone made a guess about the cost of its parts, but that doesn't include a whole host of other costs -- including R&D, marketing, taxes, importation, distribution, inventory, store overhead, staffing.....
The reality is that people hear that "ebooks will be more expensive," and shortly thereafter people who are used to paying $10 for an ebook hit the ceiling. Reason makes rare appearances in the resulting discussions or interpretations.