Quote:
Originally Posted by dadioflex
Did we see this?
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/04/boo...e-twitter.html
Anyway. If books were cheaper, would you read more? Do you read according to what you can afford? Just playing Devil's Advocate. I'm all for cheaper ebooks, but I think a two dollar ebook might sell better than a fifteen dollar one, but over all there are going to be winners and losers.
From that article above.
"In short, book-writing is a worse-than-ever means to a livelihood, and mass-market renown is disappearing as a concept, fractioning into a million niches."
ie, if people forego the fifteen dollar book in favour of the two dollar one, then some talented writers are going to be looking for a different way to make a living. |
I'm not sure how much the cost difference is between producing a paper back book versus supplying digital versions. My guess is that after the initial cost of setting up the infrastructure to produce and sell digital books the cost to maintain that infrastructure would be less than what it is now to produce, storing and shipping paper back books.
In my opinion, when we talk about lower cost for digital books we are talking about passing that savings by going digital on to the consumer. What ever that difference happens to be.
So in most cases, the writer could still be compensated the same because the cost is deducted from production and distribution. Depends on the publisher I guess.
As a consumer, I would still pay a premium for new releases as long as it's reasonable. Market that 15 dollar book at 10 dollars and the publishers could still make money if it in fact cheaper to produce and distrubute digital books.
Lets say I grow and sell apples for a living. I sell them at $2.00 dollars each but it takes $1.00 for me to grow one. However, I discover a cheaper way to grow them and the new way allows me to grow them at $0.50 each. If i sold the apples now at $1.50 I would still be bringing in as much as I did beore. But of course if this was real, I probably wouldn't be selling any apples at those prices
