Are Attitudes About E-Book Prices Changing?

[leebase]

Originally Posted by anamardoll

If the Big 6 is currently making more money than any other entity on the market, it doesn't therefore correlate that they're making the most money they could be or that their tactics aren't progressively shrinking their consumer base (AND their author base, for that matter). They've started out with a very hefty advantage and eBooks are still relatively new to the scene, all things considered.
.

I didn't assert the opposite. There seems to be a meme here that the big publishers just don't know anything about how to best sell books. Just asking about who is doing so more successfully?

I'm not asserting that they have perfectly priced their product, but I do challenge the notion that any on this forum really knows just what the perfect price point is.

Lee

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by leebase

I'm not asserting that they have perfectly priced their product, but I do challenge the notion that any on this forum really knows just what the perfect price point is.

Lee

Different people have different price levels. In the old days this was settled with hardbacks, paperbacks and used books. With ebooks the choice is just hardback-priced-ebook or free pirate copy. What you need is something inbetween to mop up the money that the paperback and used book buyers are desperate to give you. And quickly. Because if you allow them to get used to everything being free on the pirate circuit they're lost forever.

[Fallingwater]

Speaking of eBook pricing, I'm a bit puzzled by the fact that the publishers aren't screaming bloody murder about piracy drowning them, the way the music industry does...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

Different people have different price levels. In the old days this was settled with hardbacks, paperbacks and used books. With ebooks the choice is just hardback-priced-ebook or free pirate copy. What you need is something inbetween to mop up the money that the paperback and used book buyers are desperate to give you. And quickly. Because if you allow them to get used to everything being free on the pirate circuit they're lost forever.

I really don't agree with this. I buy quite a lot of eBooks (typically about 3 a week), and they are mostly (from Amazon UK, this is) priced in the £4-5 range. I'd consider this to be reasonable - it's below paperback price, and that's even with the fact that eBooks are subject to 20% VAT while paper books are zero-rated.

Personally I would always buy a legal eBook even if I knew that pirate versions existed. The assumption that pirated eBooks will always result in a lost sale for the publisher is not a valid one.

[DMB]

It's like buying DVDs. When they're brand new, they're pricey. Wait a couple of years and you can usually get them for peanuts. Similarly, if a book has just been published and is available only in hardback, then an e-version will usually be dear as well. But teh price comes down as cheaper dt versions are issued.

[FizzyWater]

You know, I don't particularly care if they want to price "hardback" ebooks at 9.99 or 13.99 or 15.99, it's the "mass-market paperback" ebook prices that are by-and-large frozen at cover price that ticks me off.

[xg4bx]

unless it's from a small press and my only other option is a limited edition, expensive print copy, i won't pay more than $8 for an ebook. when it comes to $8 or so for a kindle edition of a mass market book, i'd rather have a hard copy.

those asking $19 for something like ayn rand are just begging to be pirated. the books are 60 years old and shes long dead. its just pure greed.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

You know, I don't particularly care if they want to price "hardback" ebooks at 9.99 or 13.99 or 15.99, it's the "mass-market paperback" ebook prices that are by-and-large frozen at cover price that ticks me off.

So if it is acceptable to have hardcover frozen cover price why is it not acceptable having it for paperbacks?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by xg4bx

those asking $19 for something like ayn rand are just begging to be pirated. the books are 60 years old and shes long dead. its just pure greed.

$19 is not so much for a book.

But also Ayn Rand books should be price insensitive. The believers in her philosophy cannot pirate them and for the non-believers they are not worth anything so it seems to be the correct decision to have a high price foe them.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I really don't agree with this. I buy quite a lot of eBooks (typically about 3 a week), and they are mostly (from Amazon UK, this is) priced in the £4-5 range. I'd consider this to be reasonable - it's below paperback price, and that's even with the fact that eBooks are subject to 20% VAT while paper books are zero-rated.

Personally I would always buy a legal eBook even if I knew that pirate versions existed. The assumption that pirated eBooks will always result in a lost sale for the publisher is not a valid one.

But presumably pre-ebook you were buying new books (paper or hard) rather than used ones? It's not about lost sales, it's about attracting customers they never had to begin with. It's not feasible to expect someone used to paying £2-£3 or less for used books to suddenly start paying £4-£5 or more for ebooks. That is why people selling used ebooks on Ebay do so well, they are attracting the sort of people who are used to buying used realbooks in the same way. The market for used books is vast compared to the market for new books.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by mr ploppy

The market for used books is vast compared to the market for new books.

And likely always will be. A used bookseller often pays very little for the books they sell (Half Price books here pays around $0.10 cents for a book they'll sell for $4 in my experience) so don't have a ton tied up in per book inventory costs. I don't see a publisher with all the associated production and distrobution costs being able to compete with that. I doubt they can totally make it up on volume if they were to drop their stuff down to used prices.

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by tompe

So if it is acceptable to have hardcover frozen cover price why is it not acceptable having it for paperbacks?

Because if the ebook price is frozen to the hardcover price, then when the paperback is released, the ebook will cost more than the paper version. And given that even the publishers admit that the cost of paper accounts for $10-15% of the book's price, it's highway robbery to charge more for the ebook than for the paper. I am fine with paying a premium when the book is new and hot, but when a decades-old paperback can be purchased new for $6 and the ebook is on the offer for more than double, I feel robbed and I won't pay it.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by ficbot

I am fine with paying a premium when the book is new and hot, but when a decades-old paperback can be purchased new for $6 and the ebook is on the offer for more than double, I feel robbed and I won't pay it.

I agree, but are you still running into that a lot? Maybe it's just the books I'm looking at, but I haven't been seeing it like I used to.

[anamardoll]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

I agree, but are you still running into that a lot? Maybe it's just the books I'm looking at, but I haven't been seeing it like I used to.

Recently this occurred with the Faulkner books. $10 for new eBook, $8 for new pBook, >$3 for used.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by ficbot

Because if the ebook price is frozen to the hardcover price, then when the paperback is released, the ebook will cost more than the paper version. And given that even the publishers admit that the cost of paper accounts for $10-15% of the book's price, it's highway robbery to charge more for the ebook than for the paper. I am fine with paying a premium when the book is new and hot, but when a decades-old paperback can be purchased new for $6 and the ebook is on the offer for more than double, I feel robbed and I won't pay it.

Eh, when the paper-back is released an ebook version of the paperback is released with frozen price, of course. And it need to be a new version since the paperback have error corrections that we want to have in the ebook version also.