CS Monitor: How Should We Price E-Books?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

They use agents, not distributors; the agents don't get to set the prices or the terms of sale--they can't distribute to other stores who get to resell the items under their own terms. The publisher sets the end-user's purchase price. The article mentioned other industries using this pricing method; I'd like to know what those are. What other industries involve a manufacturer setting the end-user purchase price? (I'm not saying there aren't any just because I can't think of them off the top of my head.)

Ah, I misunderstood the term. Here is one example of setting a minimum price:

http://blogs.computerworld.com/14842...inimum_pricing

The article gives a reference to a Wall Street story discussing this more.

Have Baen's hardcover sales dropped in the 10 years they've been offering cheap, DRM-free ebooks?

Do they have any statistics showing that ebook sales reduce hardcover sales? And that higher ebook prices connect to more hardcover sales?

Eh. If we get to a situation were 80% of books sold are ebooks then of course the hardcover paper book sale will be reduced. A best seller is price insensitive. So you will not get so many extra sales by reducing the price.

[J. Strnad]

In my experience, the resale value of a book is about $1 for a hardback and 25 cents for a paperback, if you can get anything for them. I drove to a couple of used book stores with a pickup truck full of books (hardbacks and paperbacks) and they each took three or four books and passed on the rest. We have yard sales and it's the same thing: we sell a few books but carry many more back into the house.

I don't understand the concept of "renting" an ebook. It's electrons. You don't give back electrons. The idea of renting something to someone is that you get it back and rent it to someone else; over time you get more in rental fees than the item cost you. How does that apply to ebooks? You, as a publisher, make all the copies you want and send them to customers. There's no physical object to "rent." Maybe I'm missing something.

[asjogren]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

I don't understand the concept of "renting" an ebook. It's electrons. You don't give back electrons. The idea of renting something to someone is that you get it back and rent it to someone else; over time you get more in rental fees than the item cost you. How does that apply to ebooks? You, as a publisher, make all the copies you want and send them to customers. There's no physical object to "rent." Maybe I'm missing something.

Same thing happens with movies now via BlockBuster, NetFlix, Amazon. They are just electrons.

Currently, Overdrive.com does it with eBooks through your public library. They buy say 2 eBook copies of J Strnad's latest book. Then their database shows an inventory of two. When I rent it, I get a DRM'd copy tied to my device/account/credit card that expires at then end of the rental period. I can't read this book beyond the rental period. As patrons request this book the database count decrements until zero. Then no one else can rent it until the copies in the field expire - at that time the database count in incremented and other patrons can rent it.

So you are correct. There is nothing to return. The eBook file just becomes orphaned.

[afa]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It is called Kinect and it really and truly works great. Ships Nov 4 2010.
One of its early uses is a personal fitness trainer application from Ubisoft Montreal. It also lets you control movie watching via gestures and voice commands. All they need is an eReader app, now.

Off-topic, but just thought I'd mention that the movie controls in Kinect are voice activated, not gesture controlled (yet).

Also, as awesome as the concept seemed from the moment they announced it (back when it was still known as Project Natal), a few early testing by the likes CNET showed that its motion detection is a little hit-or-miss.

Still a great idea, though. And they might iron out the kinks by the time it's officially on sale.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

I don't understand the concept of "renting" an ebook. It's electrons. You don't give back electrons. The idea of renting something to someone is that you get it back and rent it to someone else; over time you get more in rental fees than the item cost you. How does that apply to ebooks? You, as a publisher, make all the copies you want and send them to customers. There's no physical object to "rent." Maybe I'm missing something.

That, of course, is the beauty, convenience, and utter chaos of digital

[hurricane]

Originally Posted by carld

For me the outrage comes from publishers charging more for a product when demand ISN'T high. I was interested in Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Simon and Schuster wants $13.99 for the Kindle edition of a hardcover published in 1989.

The book is #7,853 in the Kindle Store, and #4,590 in Books. That's not bad, but I don't see any justification for such a high price for an old book.

devil's advocate:

it kind of makes business sense. for one thing, it is reasonable for publishers to assume that e-reader users are relatively more "affluent" and have more disposable income to spend on "gizmos." Therefore if I were the management, why wouldn't I charge more for a e-book, even the cost of producing it is less? Same logic applies to why high-end hotels are charging $10 for a bottle of water - the people who go there just have more money to spend.

And if the publisher is not 100% committed to ebooks, and still think that pbooks are the bread and butter they intend to keep, there is even less incentive for them to offer discount on ebooks in order to push the market. I could imagine during management meeting, there is a possible discussion along the line "OK, it seems that this ebook wave is unavoidable, but we have this pbooks model so deeply ingrained in our business, so we will dip into the ebook territory to avoid becoming dinosaurs but we will charge a premium and see how far we could push it."

As a user, obviously i like to see lower prices, but such publisher mentality (if true) is not totally unreasonable from a business standpoint.

[carld]

Originally Posted by J. Strnad

In my experience, the resale value of a book is about $1 for a hardback and 25 cents for a paperback, if you can get anything for them. I drove to a couple of used book stores with a pickup truck full of books (hardbacks and paperbacks) and they each took three or four books and passed on the rest. We have yard sales and it's the same thing: we sell a few books but carry many more back into the house.

After Mom passed away we had a whole house sale which turned into a giveaway at the end. I sold a lot of books for very little, gave away a bunch more and ended up carting what was left to Goodwill. While I liked used books back when I could still read paperbacks most people don't seem to place much value on them unless it's something that they're specifically interested in.

I'm 100% on the bandwagon for space saving, no weight ebooks. I've got no interest in books as objects.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by tompe

Which shops price new hardcovers below cost?

My friends buy hardcovers at Costco. They are cheaper than Walmart and Target. And after a quick comparison I see they can be 10-15% less than Amazon which leads me to believe Costco sells at or slightly below cost.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

What other industries involve a manufacturer setting the end-user purchase price? (I'm not saying there aren't any just because I can't think of them off the top of my head.)

Designers and vendors such as Calvin Klein, Coach, D&B, Gucci, Jockey, etc. set retail prices. They also set sales and promotions. Notice they are excluded from the 20%+ off store coupons?

Fragrances at fine retailers are set by vendors too. When their stock "expires" the vendor resells them to those discounters you see in the mall kiosks.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by afa

Still a great idea, though. And they might iron out the kinks by the time it's officially on sale.

They are. Rumor has it they're using Amazon's Turk service to improve their recognition databases.

I still hope for a reader App for it. :-D

[sassanik]

Originally Posted by susan_cassidy

I'm saving money by NOT having to buy more bookcases!

That is one of my favorite things about ebooks! My ebook library is up 800 plus books and it only takes up space on my computer harddrive and my little ereaders! No more boxes of books!

Amy

[Hellmark]

Really, as I see things, the only time ebooks will eat at hard cover sales is for people who want a book soon after release, and the only options are ebook and hardcover. Paperbacks are more akin to ebooks, since they offer less of a collector value. If ebooks are only release when the paperback is, then you'll not see any cannibalization of sales on the hard cover.

[JimKal]

I read an article recently that looked back at 1910. Part of what got my attention was that there were few cars. The top speed was 20 miles an hour and there were only a few hundred miles of paved road. Technology has changed that. The automobile has changed the way we lay out cities, changed how far we are willing to live from the workplace, changed just about every aspect of our lives.

E-books and e-publishing will change the way we interact with the "printed" word. Eventually prices will drop as mainstream publishers figure out how to make this work for them. I think the publishing industry does add value to the product beyond the printing process, the distribution, and the marketing. But, it remains for them to figure out how to price that value. In the meantime, as Alisa pointed out, they have investments in overhead that are part of the cost structure that won't go away even if they only issued e-books.