Books vs eBooks - please explain

[Katti's Cat]

First off, not sure if this is the right place for it, but I couldn't find another suitable place in the forum. Please relocate if you have a better suggestion.

Ok, I am the new owner of an eBook reader. After I ordered it, I started a list of books I wanted. And my, is it a long list. As I am located in Australia, I very soon ran into the problem of: "Can't sell to you"

I now have 2 questions:
1) Why can I order a hardcover book in the US (or anywhere else in the world), get it mailed to me, but not an eBook?

2) Why the heck (pardon my french) does an eBook ordered (if you are silly enough) from an Australian site costs as much as the hardcover version? Who in his / her right mind would pay A$33 (roughly US$30) for a new book if ordered as eBook? Is it just greed by the Australians? Can't be explained by the increased transport cost.

So I am slightly peeved off, but already in love with my reader that I am not willing to send it back (No way Jose). And I am busy downloading freebies (which btw I can get from the US sites) as well as raiding the Gutenberg Project. Already rediscovered heaps of classics and thanks to the forum discovered new authors.

Still - very much annoyed. Anyone got any 'logical' explanation?

[troykm]

i agree with you, i bought the ECO reader and they are starting their own ebook store this month (hopefully) and we shall see the prices. i for one will not pay the same price as a paper book! in the mean time, i suggest you use the pirate bay or another torrent site as there are thousands of ebooks on them, and you can d/l quite a lot very quickly as they are small file sizes. i have got 3000 now. i would rather pay for them, but when you are ignored, as we are in Australia, you make your own luck!

lets hope the ECO reader store delivers

[smerrall]

Unfortunately this ripoff on book prices is well known. It got to the point of an association of book sellers lobbying federal government to allow parallel importation of books. This was supported by the Productivity Commission, most economists and retailers. The proposition was defeated yesterday. The publishers went crazy and lobbied everybody who'd listen. They got the unions and Peter Garrett on side and the rolled caucus. There was a lot of animosity about it.
The prize for most stupid comment went to the Competition Minister who said that consumers wouldn't be hurt because of online book sales and e-books. How the retailers will survive the 75% discounts we get online is beyond me.
Parallel importation would also have allowed Amazon et. al. to sell ebooks to us directly as well. Now it's a forlorn hope.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/poli...-1225796416507
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz...1111-ia0a.html

[pdurrant]

There's two parts to the answer to Q1.

1a) Publisher's contracts with authors were usually for US & Canada rights or UK & Rest of world rights. This sort-of makes sense with physical books. Unfortunately, contracts didn't change for ebooks, so publishers often only have the rights to sell ebooks in certain parts of the world.
1b) For sale of a physical book, the point of sale is the location of the seller, so it's possible to order US books from outside the US. For ebooks, it's been agreed (who by? I'm not sure. I suspect the tax authorities in various countries) that the piint of sale is the location of the customer. So US publishers with US-only rights can't sell outside the US.

The answer to Q2 is simpler.
Many publishers are idiots when it comes to ebooks, wish they'd go away, and are terrified of going out of business because of them.

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

1) Why can I order a hardcover book in the US (or anywhere else in the world), get it mailed to me, but not an eBook?

2) Why the heck (pardon my french) does an eBook ordered (if you are silly enough) from an Australian site costs as much as the hardcover version? Who in his / her right mind would pay A$33 (roughly US$30) for a new book if ordered as eBook? Is it just greed by the Australians? Can't be explained by the increased transport cost.

[Katti's Cat]

Thanks for the reply - glad (not really) that we seem to agree. Some of the regional restrictions I understand as there seem to be different publishing dates (although I still can get them in country of first published and shipped).

Not sure why the regional restrictions though. I have now bitten the bullet and actually bought some books (e-) from a uk seller - the prices still hurt as they are still more expensive and very close to the hardcover but I JUST HAD TO HAVE those books. Naughty me.

Maybe one day we can get the books for a fair price, the current pricing in Australia just invites to use pirated books (so far I have resisted as I do actually want to pay - silly me). But as I don't think that the authors get the extra money - sorry Australian sellers, not a dime from me.

[Direct Ebooks]

Hi Katti.

I set up our business for exactly the same reasons you are describing. We're not as far away here in Ireland, but we still have the same problems! All our eBooks are available worldwide. Check out our website www.directebooks.com, and if you have any questions, let me know.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

1) Why can I order a hardcover book in the US (or anywhere else in the world), get it mailed to me, but not an eBook?

Because most Publishers are idiots when it comes to selling eBooks.

2) Why the heck (pardon my french) does an eBook ordered (if you are silly enough) from an Australian site costs as much as the hardcover version?

Because most Publishers are idiots when it comes to selling eBooks.

Still - very much annoyed. Anyone got any 'logical' explanation?

See above.

[khalleron]

When I was in Australia a couple of years ago, I was shocked at the pbook prices. $16.99 for a paperback SF book? My word.

Of course, I was shocked by the price of most things there. $2 for a can of Coke? $1.85 for a candy bar?

We Americans don't appreciate how good we have it most of the time, really.

[neilmarr]

I was happy to just find that Direct Ebooks in Ireland (www.directebooks.com) carries all our BeWrite Books ebook titles. All nicely presented and fairly priced. Lovely site. Superb range. Many thanks. Neil

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Because most Publishers are idiots when it comes to selling eBooks.



Because most Publishers are idiots when it comes to selling eBooks.



See above.

So true.....hopefully we can educate them though and get them at least up to the 20th century.

[neilmarr]

Some pal you are, Kenny! But, of course, you're dead right. Neil

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Some pal you are, Kenny! But, of course, you're dead right. Neil

Hey Neil, you're head and shoulders above the riff-raff. You know that. We luv ya!





P.S. he did say "most" not "all"

[Dulin's Books]

The main reason for the cost of ebooks be "high" is that the actual printing and distribution of a physical book is actually a minor part of the retail cost. Also there is no "paperback" version of an ebook.

The publisher's for the most part have settled on pricing the ebooks with a discount from the hardcover physical book retail price. Then there is the fee for the DRM license and the cost of servers etc etc for the actual digital distribution.

There are allot of people that have to get a paycheck between the author of any book, physical or digital, and you. The paper makers , binders and truckers are a very small fraction for the physical book.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by khalleron

When I was in Australia a couple of years ago, I was shocked at the pbook prices. $16.99 for a paperback SF book? My word.

Of course, I was shocked by the price of most things there. $2 for a can of Coke? $1.85 for a candy bar?

We Americans don't appreciate how good we have it most of the time, really.

is that including adjustments for exchange rates?

Originally Posted by kennyc

Hey Neil, you're head and shoulders above the riff-raff. You know that. We luv ya!





P.S. he did say "most" not "all"

*votes Neil King and head mo-fo in charge of ALL the publishers*

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

The main reason for the cost of ebooks be "high" is that the actual printing and distribution of a physical book is actually a minor part of the retail cost. Also there is no "paperback" version of an ebook.

The publisher's for the most part have settled on pricing the ebooks with a discount from the hardcover physical book retail price. Then there is the fee for the DRM license and the cost of servers etc etc for the actual digital distribution.

There are allot of people that have to get a paycheck between the author of any book, physical or digital, and you. The paper makers , binders and truckers are a very small fraction for the physical book.

So right, that most of the cost of any book, ebook or not, goes to expenses in preparing the book for publication, not the actual publication. But there's also another factor involved-competition.

One of the fundamental rules of marketing in a business which both sells directly and via a distribution chain is that, unless you're prepared to have your distribution chain stop selling your product, you don't undercut them.

In accordance with that, when you're selling paperbacks via the distribution chain then you price your ebooks at paperback prices-and when you're selling hardbacks via the distribution chain then you price them at hardback prices. Note that 'at' is inexact. Some direct sellers try to keep their prices slightly above their distribution chain's prices, others keep their prices slightly below-but only slightly. If they undercut them drastically then they lose the distribution chain-and also their sales & advertising.

Distribution chains don't exist because they're convenient, they exist because they're profitable for the publishers. Until that changes (about the time ebooks become universal? or when H*** freezes over? I'm not optimistic here-best I hope for is that ebooks will become 'normal', don't expect they'll ever become universal) I doubt if you'll see really low prices for new 'best seller' releases. (Other than promotions, such as FW's 100% rebate on the NYT best sellers.)

As for GR, I blame the authors as much-maybe more-than I do the publishers. Contracts are agreements between two parties. Maybe for new authors the publisher has more power to dictate terms, but for a proven seller (doesn't even need to be a *best* seller-just someone who's had a couple of books published with enough sales to show a profit) it would be fairly easy for them to exclude ebook rights, or specify that they be world-wide. If they cared. So I say it's two-fold. Few authors care & few publishers have adopted ebooks sufficiently to create a separate policy for them.