Frasier Speirs: On eBook Pricing

[kjk]

http://speirs.org/blog/2011/5/4/on-ebook-pricing.html

Let me make this very clear: I know absolutely nothing about publishing. I don't know how deals are structured, I don't know about advances or geographical rights or anything. All I know is that I'm being offered one package of words in, usually, three formats - hardback, paperback and ebook - at three different prices.

I'm not unsympathetic to people trying to make a living in book writing or publishing. I merely note that any value proposition that includes within it something about "you, the customer, need to understand our cost structures and pressures" sadly contains the seeds of its own destruction.

Love the last line.

[GA Russell]

Thanks for the link!

[Anthem]

Hah, very nice.

[kindlekitten]

and he is???

[petermillard]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

and he is???

A blogger.

http://speirs.org/about/

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by petermillard

A blogger.

http://speirs.org/about/

thank you very much ;ol

I got that

why do I want to know what he blogs?

[ImogenRose]

Thanks for the link.

[tompe]

But it is wrong that you are offered three packages at the same time. You are offered four packages distributed over time. First hardcover and harcover edition ebook. Then later paperback and paperback edition ebook is added.

[rhadin]

This must be the week/month for blogs about ebook pricing. I just concluded a 3-part article on my blog addressing the issue (see In the Era of eBooks, What Is a Book Worth? part I, part II, and part III).

In my case, I addressed what I view as the fundamental flaw in ebook pricing, the idea that authors and books are so unique as to justify the high pricing. I view authors as interchangeable within tiers and genres, which makes ebooks more a commodity that requires lower pricing and less a scarce resource that supports high pricing. I am not convinced that customers need to understand cost structures other than to recognize that ebooks do have costs that are similar to the costs of print books. There is a tendency among ebookers to either shift all costs to the print versions (except for nominal costs) or to believe that production costs for print and ebook vary by large amounts, which variance is reflected -- at least in print books -- by the pricing disparity between hardcover and paperbacks.

The reality is that it costs little more to produce a hardcover as opposed to a paerback. The real cost disparity between print and ebooks lies in shipping, warehousing, and returns. Although ebookers like to also include printing costs, there are issues in the production process of ebooks that balance against the paper + printing aspects. (I do recognize, however, that too many ebooks are merely slopped together rather than using the equivalent costs to fix the ebook problems.)

Anyway, the word that ebook pricing is nonjustifiable seems to keep spreading. Perhaps the Agency 6 decision makers will actually, some day, one day, read one of those blogs and have a light bulb click on.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by rhadin

In my case, I addressed what I view as the fundamental flaw in ebook pricing, the idea that authors and books are so unique as to justify the high pricing. I view authors as interchangeable within tiers and genres.

I totally disagree with that. I read a book by a specific author. I do not just read a book. But then I go to science fiction conventions and interact with authors and discus specific authors with friends and so on. The value of reading a book is not just the text.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by rhadin

In my case, I addressed what I view as the fundamental flaw in ebook pricing, the idea that authors and books are so unique as to justify the high pricing. I view authors as interchangeable within tiers and genres....

JK Rowling has sold tens, if not hundreds, of millions of books. Cornelia Funke, who writes in a similar genre, has not.

Are you sure about this claim?

By the way, lots of the genre ebooks that are cranked out somewhat interchangeably are lower in price -- e.g. Harlequin and romance books.

Originally Posted by rhadin

The real cost disparity between print and ebooks lies in shipping, warehousing, and returns.

Yes, but that cost disparity is not that huge -- around 15%.

Originally Posted by rhadin

Anyway, the word that ebook pricing is nonjustifiable seems to keep spreading. Perhaps the Agency 6 decision makers will actually, some day, one day, read one of those blogs and have a light bulb click on.

OK, and the evidence for this claim is in what, the steadily booming ebook sales?

Even in the echo chamber of the Internets, I'm not seeing much of a change in the amount of complaints over pricing, especially given the phenomenal growth in the market sector.

Meanwhile, according to our friends at Amazon, of the 900k commercial books available, 740k (or, over 80%) are $10 or less, including dozens of NYT Best Sellers. Yes, clearly the public is getting mercilessly jacked....

And that doesn't include millions of public domain titles that once would cost $5-$10 for a print copy, that can now be had for free.

[TheJohnNewton]

Why are people always going on about cost when talking about retail pricing? It's the demand and what people are willing to pay that's important. The cost has almost nothing to do with it.

[jbcohen]

Agreed Richard, I look at some industries that way definetly authors. Wether the author is Tom Clancy or Drew Berquist its all the same to me, where they differ is in their writting ability. I am generally not willing to pay additional for a well written novel becuase i have found zero correlation between price and quality (and I did a scientific study here, took every book I own electronic or dead wood and recorded the price and assigned a subjective number to indicate the writting ability of the author). T Test to examine the correlation between the two and the answer was 0. I then did other inferential statistics to look into the issue further and there was no relationship what so ever. No bell curve simply a flat line.

Its also interesting to look further to see that Spiers is professionally a computer programmer. I wonder what this discussion would be like if someone joined in that knows something about book publishing.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Agreed Richard, I look at some industries that way definetly authors. Wether the author is Tom Clancy or Drew Berquist its all the same to me, where they differ is in their writting ability.

...and that writing ability is exactly what makes them so different! That's like saying the difference between McDonald's and a 5-star restaurant is 'only' the chef.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by queentess

That's like saying the difference between McDonald's and a 5-star restaurant is 'only' the chef.

Ahhh, but that is the only difference and you would know that if you watched the Food Channel. McD hires cooks not chefs; well, actually they hire flippers not cooks -- cooks generally can do more than slap a burger on a grill.