MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Publishers: look at the used book market when considering eBooks

nekokami · 11-02-2006, 12:51 PM

This idea grew out of a discussion in that long "why aren't eBooks popular" thread.

I'd like to suggest that traditional print publishers, when thinking about how to price eBooks and which eBooks to include in the list, take a good look at the used book market. Just for starters, look at http://abebooks.com, the Amazon used books collection, and Powells (http://powells.com). There's a lot of money at stake here, and I think print publishers should be taking note.

For one thing, it's a revenue stream the traditional print publishers and authors don't currently have a cut of, so it might help get their attention. For another, the used book market is driven by market demand, rather than publisher hype. You occasionally get the high-priced anomoly (I paid US$30 for my copy of Diana Wynne Jones' paperback Tough Guide to Fantasyland, because it's out of print and I really wanted a copy), but most books are quite reasonably priced, based on what people are willing to pay -- people who aren't obsessed with having a shiny new paper copy in hand. You couldn't ask for better market research. And -- most cricitcal to publishers - these books are selling.

Yet another reason for publishers to take another good look at the used book market is the continuing popularity of many out of print titles. Again, publishers don't get a cut of used book sales, and they've generally given up on these titles because of printing, storage, etc. costs. But in the eBook world, a publisher (or author) could realize a sale from all sorts of backlist titles, for minimal cost. And much as I like paper books, there are a lot of books I've bought used online that I would have been delighted to pay a comparable price for a quality eBook version, especially since I then would have skipped shipping cost, time, and uncertainty. (One used book I bought arrived reeking of tobacco smoke and had three pages torn out near the end. And sometimes used books are advertised that have already been sold or simply aren't in the sellers inventory, for whatever reason, resulting in a cancelled sale and unhappiness all around.)

And why worry about where the books go after the first purchaser picks them up? Just as is the case with used books now, every book should be its own advertisement for that author or publishing house. For eReaders with the ability to go online, just imagine that last page or so of many books, where the ads for other books by that author or publisher are, with live links so that readers are encouraged to click and purchase-- or even pre-order-- the next Great Book! Not like I want books to be any further commercialized than they already are, but heck, they do this already. And when you've just finished one book in a series and you're being informed of what the title of the next one will be and when it will be out (perhaps with a little excerpt), that seems to me to be the ideal time to place an order for the next installment. Or the front pages, where often you see "Other books by this author" or "in this series (nonfiction)"-- those could be active links to view and/or purchase. Even someone who managed to get the current book for free "from a friend" may likely go ahead and make the jump to buy the next one, if the price is right and the process is absurdly easy. This is a heavy advantage over the music model -- it's not so easy to include links to buy the next song in an MP3 file.

There are many other analogies that might also make sense for print publishers to consider, e.g. the cassette tape era in music publishing. But I think this one has a lot of appeal. It's a world print publishers are at least halfway familiar with, and would probably like a piece of. This could be one of the carrots to get them to jump into the eBook world.

Just my 2 jiao,

11-02-2006, 12:51 PM	#1
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	Publishers: look at the used book market when considering eBooks This idea grew out of a discussion in that long "why aren't eBooks popular" thread. I'd like to suggest that traditional print publishers, when thinking about how to price eBooks and which eBooks to include in the list, take a good look at the used book market. Just for starters, look at http://abebooks.com, the Amazon used books collection, and Powells (http://powells.com). There's a lot of money at stake here, and I think print publishers should be taking note. For one thing, it's a revenue stream the traditional print publishers and authors don't currently have a cut of, so it might help get their attention. For another, the used book market is driven by market demand, rather than publisher hype. You occasionally get the high-priced anomoly (I paid US$30 for my copy of Diana Wynne Jones' paperback Tough Guide to Fantasyland, because it's out of print and I really wanted a copy), but most books are quite reasonably priced, based on what people are willing to pay -- people who aren't obsessed with having a shiny new paper copy in hand. You couldn't ask for better market research. And -- most cricitcal to publishers - these books are selling. Yet another reason for publishers to take another good look at the used book market is the continuing popularity of many out of print titles. Again, publishers don't get a cut of used book sales, and they've generally given up on these titles because of printing, storage, etc. costs. But in the eBook world, a publisher (or author) could realize a sale from all sorts of backlist titles, for minimal cost. And much as I like paper books, there are a lot of books I've bought used online that I would have been delighted to pay a comparable price for a quality eBook version, especially since I then would have skipped shipping cost, time, and uncertainty. (One used book I bought arrived reeking of tobacco smoke and had three pages torn out near the end. And sometimes used books are advertised that have already been sold or simply aren't in the sellers inventory, for whatever reason, resulting in a cancelled sale and unhappiness all around.) And why worry about where the books go after the first purchaser picks them up? Just as is the case with used books now, every book should be its own advertisement for that author or publishing house. For eReaders with the ability to go online, just imagine that last page or so of many books, where the ads for other books by that author or publisher are, with live links so that readers are encouraged to click and purchase-- or even pre-order-- the next Great Book! Not like I want books to be any further commercialized than they already are, but heck, they do this already. And when you've just finished one book in a series and you're being informed of what the title of the next one will be and when it will be out (perhaps with a little excerpt), that seems to me to be the ideal time to place an order for the next installment. Or the front pages, where often you see "Other books by this author" or "in this series (nonfiction)"-- those could be active links to view and/or purchase. Even someone who managed to get the current book for free "from a friend" may likely go ahead and make the jump to buy the next one, if the price is right and the process is absurdly easy. This is a heavy advantage over the music model -- it's not so easy to include links to buy the next song in an MP3 file. There are many other analogies that might also make sense for print publishers to consider, e.g. the cassette tape era in music publishing. But I think this one has a lot of appeal. It's a world print publishers are at least halfway familiar with, and would probably like a piece of. This could be one of the carrots to get them to jump into the eBook world. Just my 2 jiao,