Ebook prices

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by JimKal

Micheo Kaku's "Physics of the Furture". The hardcover is $16.63, The Kindle version is $14.99, the paperback is $9.75. It seems almost perverse to set the e-book price so much higher than the paperback price. Ultimately, I think, some publisher will realize the real advantages of e-books: no paper, no printing press, almost $0 cost of distribution, no overstock.

They do realize those things - and are using the opportunity to pocket the differences.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by mldavis2

Because we should not be paying for paper, ink, printing, binding, transportation, stocking, inventory and brick and mortar overhead. Preparation of an eBook is a one-time event, followed by an infinitesimal amount of storage space and server time.

Not to mention the known demand for a book already in print. Backlist books being re-offered as ebooks are known to have a market: if they flopped horribly on the first print run, the publisher wouldn't be re-issuing them.

There's little risk with backlist books--the publisher doesn't have to convince the public that the author is worth reading; doesn't have to edit the book to marketability; doesn't have to research current trends to find out how the topic connects to other things currently available. Production costs are minimal and business-planning costs are almost nil.

Publishers are, of course, not mentioning how much less planning and decision-making overhead goes into backlist ebooks.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by JimKal

As I said, that is the listed price on Amazon for the paperback. While this example seems particularly egregious, it is not uncommon to see a paperback listed at a lower price than the e-book. I find myself not buying either version when they do something like this. I just don't understand the business model for this type of pricing. They won't kill the e-book market and it seems to punish the publisher more than anyone else.

Could you give me a link? I have searched for the book and cannot find the paperback version. So to me it seems that you have mistakenly got the impression that the paperback version is out.

[tompe]

I found it on www.amazon.co.uk for £9.99 but it will be published 1 Mars 2012. So as I suspected and very common here when people complain the paperback version is not out yet.

[TimW]

The paperback edition will be available on February 14, 2012 in the US. No, it doesn't make much sense to compare prices with an edition that won't exist for several months.

[Hellmark]

Expect prices to drop after the paper back is released. If people only have the choice between the more expensive hard cover, and ebook, people will be willing to pay more for the ebook.

[texasnightowl]

There's a reason I haven't bought any new releases lately. Take a book I actually wanted this week. "Pirate King" by Laurie R. King.

12.99 for the Kindle version
13.89 for the hardback

No. I'll wait or library it.

http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-King-su...5526473&sr=8-1

[Ken Maltby]

B&N pricing is a little odd for this series:
Book 1- pbook= $14.08 ebook=$9.99
Book 2 pbook=$6.99 ebook=$9.99
Book 3 pbook=$7.99 ebook=$9.99
Book 4 pbook=$13.78 ebook=$9.99
Book 5 pbook=$15.00 ebook=$7.99
Book 6 pbook=$13.93 ebook=$11.99
Book 7 pbook=$7.99 ebook=$7.99
Book 8 pbook=$13.78 ebook=$11.99
Book 9 pbook=$5.38 ebook=$11.99
Book 10 pbook=$9.03 ebook=$11.99
Book 11 pbook=$13.89 ebook=$12.99


I don't quite get the marketing logic to this, unless they really want you to buy book #7.

Luck;
Ken

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

B&N pricing is a little odd for this series:
Book 1- pbook= $14.08 ebook=$9.99
Book 2 pbook=$6.99 ebook=$9.99
Book 3 pbook=$7.99 ebook=$9.99
Book 4 pbook=$13.78 ebook=$9.99
Book 5 pbook=$15.00 ebook=$7.99
Book 6 pbook=$13.93 ebook=$11.99
Book 7 pbook=$7.99 ebook=$7.99
Book 8 pbook=$13.78 ebook=$11.99
Book 9 pbook=$5.38 ebook=$11.99
Book 10 pbook=$9.03 ebook=$11.99
Book 11 pbook=$13.89 ebook=$12.99


I don't quite get the marketing logic to this, unless they really want you to buy book #7.

Luck;
Ken

I know books 1-4 were re-released by a new/different publisher at one point, but have no explanation for why all the prices are so weird through the series. Luckily I was able to get a few of them for much less via Fictionwise before B&N bought them and screwed up everything.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

There's a reason I haven't bought any new releases lately. Take a book I actually wanted this week. "Pirate King" by Laurie R. King.

12.99 for the Kindle version
13.89 for the hardback

No. I'll wait or library it.

http://www.amazon.com/Pirate-King-su...5526473&sr=8-1

Cheap. Here in Sweden the English hardback is $26.

So from an European viewpoint it is hard to sympathize with the complaints about high prices...

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Pinecone

Why would anyone expect the ebooks to be substantially less than a currently in print, latest printing pbook?

I expect an ebook to cost a little less than the lowest price the publisher and/or a national brand-name retailer is offering the book at in any format. So if the publisher is offering the book for $7.99 in a paperback version, I expect the ebook to cost no more than $6.99.

Why? Not because of the so-called production and distribution savings, but because of the DRM-imposed limitations, which subtract greatly from the ebook's marketplace value, at least in my view.

If the ebook's quality is less than the paperback's quality, which is often the case, an additional reduction in price should occur to reflect not only the imposition of DRM but the lesser quality as compared to the lowest price version available to the public from the publisher and/or a national brand-name retailer.

Right now, especially with agency pricing, there is no correlation between the asked for price and the marketplace determined price of an ebook. I think there should be.

[JimKal]

Originally Posted by TimW

The paperback edition will be available on February 14, 2012 in the US. No, it doesn't make much sense to compare prices with an edition that won't exist for several months.

I agree. I hadn't noticed the release date. But, do note that Amazon is selling the paperback as a pre-release right now. I have books on my TBR list that will still be there in February. It will be interesting to see if there is a price drop for the e-book when the paperback is released in February. But the point remains that there are many books where the publisher has set a higher price for the e-book than the currently available paperback.

So, you are right that the publisher may simply be maintaining a high e-book price so as not to undercut the hardback price. I hope I'm not putting words in your mouth as I realize that this isn't what you wrote but rather my interpretation of those words.

[mldavis2]

@rhaden has pointed out one factor that I ignored in my list. For many years, I have purchased mostly paperbacks. I read them and my wife reads them. Then they go to my daughter and/or to a friend in a distant city who reads them. Ultimately they are turned over to a library or sold in a rummage sale where they are presumably read several more times. With DRM, there is no effective sharing, legally, outside of the limited scheme of Amazon which assumes everyone owns a Kindle.

So has this increased my purchase of eBooks or pBooks? Not at all. Many of the eBooks I read are free copies in the public domain or given by authors in exchange for an honest review. I continue to support the pBook industry by purchasing a few paperbacks to share, but not as many. I avoid DRM books as much as possible. I have increased my pBook library reading. Because of, and not in spite of, DRM, my reading purchases have actually decreased and I am not sharing and receiving as many purchased pBooks as in the past.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by rhadin

I expect an ebook to cost a little less than the lowest price the publisher and/or a national brand-name retailer is offering the book at in any format. So if the publisher is offering the book for $7.99 in a paperback version, I expect the ebook to cost no more than $6.99.

Why? Not because of the so-called production and distribution savings, but because of the DRM-imposed limitations, which subtract greatly from the ebook's marketplace value, at least in my view.

But don't forget: Other than those of us who hang around sites like this, most of the public doesn't know what DRM is, much less why they should care. No publisher is going to lower prices because of a technical aspect most people don't even see.

Originally Posted by rhadin

If the ebook's quality is less than the paperback's quality, which is often the case, an additional reduction in price should occur to reflect not only the imposition of DRM but the lesser quality as compared to the lowest price version available to the public from the publisher and/or a national brand-name retailer.

What publisher would admit their ebooks were of lesser quality than their printed books? Again, no publisher would lower their prices for such a reason.

I'd like to see lower prices simply by virtue of the fact that publishers have a new, opening market--books that can be bought instantly and read on readers, computers, tablets, cellphones, etc, etc--and they'd be interested in developing and nurturing that market.

[bevdeforges]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Right now, especially with agency pricing, there is no correlation between the asked for price and the marketplace determined price of an ebook. I think there should be.

Actually, I suspect that the publishers are playing around with the pricing to see how it affects e-book sales (or not).

I normally place "interesting" books on my wishlists at the various e-book stores I frequent and then just check back from time to time. The price movement is completely random (as far as I can tell) with some popular titles staying high for quite some time, and then suddenly dropping to $9.99 or even less - and sometimes even dropping lower for the European market (i.e. Kobo's euro price converted to US$) while the price for the same book is considerably higher at the Sony Store in the US. Other times, the reverse is true - the Sony Store price drops while the euro price stays outrageously high.

We're probably just part of a huge marketing experiment...