MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Why do many e-books cost more than paperback?

Robert Marquard · 06-24-2007, 01:38 PM

1. No publisher who has invested in ebooks wants them to fail. Inability to understand that an ebook can be fundamentally different from a paper book is a better explanation.

2. Eric Flint has explained it for Baen rather neatly. The money is earned by the paper book. The ebook is no loss in itself, but the paper version gets a second life in sales.

3. Publishers are a very conservative lot. Baen tried to get Tor aboard Webscriptions (DRM-free ebooks priced around $3 - $6). The deal was almost done when a single manager of Holtzbrinck (which owns Macmillan which owns Tor) decided that the price should be no less than 75% of the hardcover price. So a single point of failure is enough.

I think da_jane has the correct explanation. Publishers think of it as just another form of book.

06-24-2007, 01:38 PM	#10
Robert Marquard Delphi-Guy Posts: 285 Karma: 1151 Join Date: May 2006 Location: Berlin, Germany Device: iLiad, Palm T3	1. No publisher who has invested in ebooks wants them to fail. Inability to understand that an ebook can be fundamentally different from a paper book is a better explanation. 2. Eric Flint has explained it for Baen rather neatly. The money is earned by the paper book. The ebook is no loss in itself, but the paper version gets a second life in sales. 3. Publishers are a very conservative lot. Baen tried to get Tor aboard Webscriptions (DRM-free ebooks priced around $3 - $6). The deal was almost done when a single manager of Holtzbrinck (which owns Macmillan which owns Tor) decided that the price should be no less than 75% of the hardcover price. So a single point of failure is enough. I think da_jane has the correct explanation. Publishers think of it as just another form of book. Last edited by Robert Marquard; 06-24-2007 at 01:42 PM.