Sergent opens his mouth again

[BeccaAnn]

Thank you kennyc and colinsky for those links.

[Boston]

The more I think about this, I wonder this is really about stopping widespread e-book adoption than it is about pricing.

I know that for years I drooled over getting an ebook reader but couldn't justify the addition cost (over what I was currently spending) of books via the Sony store. It was the Amazon $9.99 pricing that convinced me to jump on board.

Sadly, I had a co-worker who had finally decided to jump on. I discussed some of the pros/cons of the various readers as I knew them and said "Why don't you borrow my Kindle for a couple of weeks?". She loved it's convenience.

Today she gave it back and said that she's decided to hold off because of the book pricing dilemma.

[whitearrow]

Originally Posted by Boston

The more I think about this, I wonder this is really about stopping widespread e-book adoption than it is about pricing.

I hate to believe that's the case, Boston, but the facts are starting to persuade me. Let's look at Macmillan's past performance. Chris Meadows (robotech_master) at LiveJournal, took a look at Macmillan's prices at Fictionwise for books that were already in paperback.

I just did a price search on Fictionwise and found that only 285 of their 2032 titles there are priced at $9.99 or less. 857 are priced at $19.99 and up. I find it hard to credit that over 40% of their books are still in hardcover.

He cites specific examples, with links. It's worth having a look.

Given this data, I don't particularly believe that Macmillan is going to drop ebook prices to $8 or less when the mass market paperback is released. And if they keep ebook prices at $10 and above when a paper copy is available for less, it's hard to conclude that they support ebooks.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Boston

The more I think about this, I wonder this is really about stopping widespread e-book adoption than it is about pricing.

It's about pricing, and control over prices.

• No one, even the alleged "dinosaurs," have any illusions that ebooks will eventually be a big part of the market.
• If Macmillan wanted to grind ebooks to a halt, they would just pull all the ebooks instead of, oh... Signing on to Apple's upcoming eBook service, which is just about the most hyped outlet of ebooks in months.

Originally Posted by Boston

Today she gave it back and said that she's decided to hold off because of the book pricing dilemma.

So, you know one person who's going to wait a bit until things get sorted out. Is this supposed to be meaningful somehow?

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

• If Macmillan wanted to grind ebooks to a halt, they would just pull all the ebooks instead of, oh... Signing on to Apple's upcoming eBook service, which is just about the most hyped outlet of ebooks in months.

[rmm200]

Just like newspapers, books printed on paper will always be the primary distribution method.

Oops - what was that sound? Another newspaper going digital only???

Robert

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Signing on to Apple's upcoming eBook service, which is just about the most hyped outlet of ebooks in months.

And is going to sell beans. It's only for iPad users, and is effectively device-locked. It's a way to justify a shift to an agency stance, no more and no less.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by kjk

Interested to see if they announce the new rates when they solve that step.

"Three or four weeks ago, we began discussions with the Author’ s Guild on their concerns about our new royalty terms. We indicated then that we would be flexible and that we were prepared to move to a higher rate for digital books."

Did you read it?

[John Bailey]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

• If Macmillan wanted to grind ebooks to a halt, they would just pull all the ebooks instead of, oh... Signing on to Apple's upcoming eBook service, which is just about the most hyped outlet of ebooks in months.

But how do you control a market from the outside looking in?

The e-book market hinges on one thing.. Media. They got it. We want it.

No e-books, no readers, no problem. But McMillan don't publish all books. And if they pulled out.. You can bet your last penny that someone else would come in and sell e-books and clean up in a limited market.
So taking your ball home when the other kids don't let you be captain of the soccer team isn't really any good if Joe down the street runs home and gets his.

Option 2. Salt the ground. Get into e-books, but keep them priced at a point where the hardback sales are not threatened. 5% now may be 10% next year, and 50% in a couple of years, once the readers get down to the Chinese brands nobody has heard of level. And become cheap..

I used to do craft fairs years ago. A little wood turning. I made some really nice bowls, plates, boxes.. All for fairly reasonable prices. And used the offcuts for paper knives and light pulls.

Guess which sold better.. A 3 minute light pull made from offcuts at £2.50 each or a £20 bowl made from a big hunk of wood that took half an hour to make.

The interesting thing will be seeing who plays along with McMillan, and if they have enough clout to make it hard for other publishers who don't toe the party line. Could be very interesting for those of you who buy DRM books. I'll stick to the freebies, PD and DRM free authors. Especially if Apple gain any power..

[kennyc]

I posted this link in another thread, but this whole topic seems to be spreading rapidly. Some actual data from Kobo:

http://blog.kobobooks.com/2010/02/04...=Google+Reader

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by John Bailey

Taking your ball home when the other kids don't let you be captain of the soccer team isn't really any good if Joe down the street runs home and gets his.

Uh... That wasn't a serious suggestion. To reiterate, publishers fully understand that ebooks will become a major part of the market, which is why they jumped on board the iPad bandwagon. They are trying to a) make sure that until that time, their margins aren't utterly destroyed, and b) protect the value of the new product. In fact, this whole brouhaha is about determining who will get control of ebook pricing moving forward.

Originally Posted by John Baily

Option 2. Salt the ground. Get into e-books, but keep them priced at a point where the hardback sales are not threatened....

It's slightly absurd to suggest that Macmillan plans to "salt the ground" by bumping up prices for new ebooks to $15 instead of $10. You might as well suggest that Hollywood is "killing" the home video market by charging more for a Blu-Ray disc than for a DVD.

Originally Posted by John Baily

Guess which sold better.. A 3 minute light pull made from offcuts at £2.50 each or a £20 bowl made from a big hunk of wood that took half an hour to make.

Yes, some of us understand basic economics. And that running a large multinational company with a complicated supply chain, and facing a disruptive technology, is slightly different than selling crafts on the weekends. By the way, more from Macroeconomics 101: When demand is high -- such as, oh, when a book is first published -- the price increases. Especially if supply is constant, as is the case with ebooks.

And, if it cost you £2.75 to make the light pull, it doesn't matter how many you sell, you still won't make a profit off that item. Or, if your profit off of a single £20 bowl is equal to the profit off of 10 light-pulls, it's acceptable if you sell fewer of them.

In order for Amazon to profit off of a $10 ebook, sooner or later they will need publishers to slash the wholesale costs to below $10. That means the cover price will have to drop by over 60%, with a corresponding drop in revenues, for a business that already has thin margins. And while ebooks are cheaper to make, they aren't anywhere near a 60% cost savings.

Similarly, there is no guarantee that the ebook customer will plough the money they save back into buying more ebooks (let alone ebooks by that publisher). It is definitely possible, but they could just as easily use the money they saved to buy movies, music, or something else Amazon sells and a book publisher doesn't.

Whatever it is the publishers are doing, even if it isn't the ideal set of steps, they certainly are not trying to "destroy" the ebook market. They're trying to manage the transition and gain control -- exactly the same thing Amazon is doing. Amazon isn't doing anything wrong, in this respect -- but don't kid yourself; ultimately Amazon is pushing ebooks and the $10 price point for their own benefit, not yours and mine.

[Sischa]

Hmm lets see what will happen after this extreme PR desaster? One person will buy a Macmillan book for 15 Bucks, de-DRM it in lets say 20sec? Put it online in 1 minute and i am pretty sure more people then before will pirate it for free.

I am pretty sure they will really fail with their strategy like the music business did before.

In a digital world it is not so easy to force the possible costumers in your little tricky business model that you want.

Sales would not rise, pirating will rise so maybe the authors should ask themselve if they really want to support this development ...

[mcl]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

It's slightly absurd to suggest that Macmillan plans to "salt the ground" by bumping up prices for new ebooks to $15 instead of $10. You might as well suggest that Hollywood is "killing" the home video market by charging more for a Blu-Ray disc than for a DVD.



Yes, some of us understand basic economics.

Then some of you had best go check the level of blu-ray sales now compared to the level of DVD sales before blu-ray came out. I think you'll find it rather lower. Why? Price. Basic economics.

I was a huge DVD collector. I own over 1500 DVDs. I owned one of the first home DVD players that was available. I was buying DVDs when it was possible to keep up with owning every DVD printed just buy buying several every month. It always amused me that my copy of A Boy and His Dog was one of the first DVDs out.

Blu-ray? I own TWO. I've owned a Blu-Ray player since they first hit the market (Yes, I was one of those people scrambling to buy a $700 PS3 on launch day.)

Why? Price. At or under $10 made sense to me for DVD. Between $10 and $20 makes no sense to me for Blu-Ray.

So, instead, I rent.

[guyanonymous]

I'm just glad I have a @#$@#load of books. I'll go through my collection, rereading the ones I've enjoyed years ago, and those I've bought and stuck on shelves intending to read. While I'm sure the 3-6 major publishers who go with Apple's approach won't notice me gone, I'm equally sure I can live without their paperbooks or ebooks for a fair while.

Will my decision affect the authors? I'm sure they'll miss the $0.15-$0.50 they made/book I purchased. But they have to accept some responsibility for the current situation. It's too bad that they can't make their money through concerts, t-shirt sales, etc. as bands traditionally have. But it's not up to me to fix that. If they choose to stick with the current publishers, it's a shame as I, at least, won't bother with their books. I can deal with the loss (I hope!).

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

I'm just glad I have a @#$@#load of books. I'll go through my collection, rereading the ones I've enjoyed years ago, and those I've bought and stuck on shelves intending to read. While I'm sure the 3-6 major publishers who go with Apple's approach won't notice me gone, I'm equally sure I can live without their paperbooks or ebooks for a fair while.

Will my decision affect the authors? I'm sure they'll miss the $0.15-$0.50 they made/book I purchased. But they have to accept some responsibility for the current situation. It's too bad that they can't make their money through concerts, t-shirt sales, etc. as bands traditionally have. But it's not up to me to fix that. If they choose to stick with the current publishers, it's a shame as I, at least, won't bother with their books. I can deal with the loss (I hope!).

8,000 titles and rising. If MacM, Hachette, Harper-Collins and the others keep pushing, I can *always* fall back upon my current titles and re-read for the rest of my life!

Derek