Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices

[Barcey]

I found this article interesting but I'd like to see the percentages going back to when the agency pricing started. I don't know what the agency percentage of the best seller list was then but I'm sure it was much higher then 65%.

http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2011...tseller-lists/

It's obvious to me they're lost a lot of paying customers and I expect it to continue.

[Museman]

It's only a matter of time. I'm completely new to e readers, however it is obvious that the price for digital versions of books should and will soon be less than for hard copies... pretty much across the board.

[Yapyap]

I don't have a set limit for ebook prices - it depends on the book. As a recent example, I'd been looking forward to the newest release in my favourite series for a year, counting down the days; when I noticed Kobo had it available a week before release date, I cancelled my Amazon pre-order for $13.79 and bought it from Kobo for $17.09 instead, because I had to have it now. (I also bought it in hardback, but that didn't reach me until two weeks later, and I'm planning to buy it in paperback, too - I have all the rest of the series as legally bought (not geo-restricted for me) ebooks, hardbacks and paperbacks, all bought new. But that's a very rare case and a series that I adore.)

Otherwise, being in a country where agency pricing doesn't apply and not having moral qualms about DRM removal for personal purposes (I learned that lesson after moving from Sony to Kindle), I generally shop around - I mostly buy books that have been available for a year or more and more often than not, end up buying them with Kobo's coupons for $6-7 on average.

I think that's a fair price; books are my main entertainment and I read a lot, but I also live in a country where incomes are much lower than in the West, so my available book budget is not unlimited (and neither the library nor used books are an option). If I had to buy all contemporary books for $9 or more, instead of the occasional brand new release for $10+ and the rest at $6-7, I'd probably be re-reading a lot of my older (paper) books instead.

Originally Posted by tompe

So my point was that there is a double standard here. Removing DRM and buying things that you should not be able to buy seems to be OK but piracying seems not to be OK. All actions hurt or has the possibility to hurt somebody. So if you accept one of these actions you should accept all of them.

Whom do I hurt when I occasionally pretend to be an American in order to buy an ebook that is available to Americans but not to me? Do I hurt the author by giving her money? Do I hurt the publisher of the ebook by giving them money? Do I hurt the bookshop where I'm buying it from by giving them money?

Do I hurt my local book publishing industry in my country who will never release the book here in English? Who will most likely also never release a translated version locally, because on our market they might be able to sell 200 copies for €20 at the most? (Even if they did, I wouldn't buy it. I haven't been able to read translated versions if the book is written in a language I am fluent in for fifteen years - my mind is too busy backtranslating into the original to enjoy it.)

I'm sincerely curious here - how does my breaking geo-restrictions in order to buy a book hurt anyone and how is it comparable to getting the book for free off a torrent site?

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I'm sincerely curious here - how does my breaking geo-restrictions in order to buy a book hurt anyone and how is it comparable to getting the book for free off a torrent site?

You're not and it's not. Geo-restrictions are silly and getting around them hurts nobody. Like you said, everybody gets their money. Getting it for free off the darknet is a lost sale (for a book you would have bought, had it been available to you).

Not the same.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

I'm sincerely curious here - how does my breaking geo-restrictions in order to buy a book hurt anyone and how is it comparable to getting the book for free off a torrent site?

Circumventing Geo Restrictions still means a sale for both the publisher and the author. It is not piracy. What a total truck load of bovine waste.

Some suggest "Tough, suck it up and go fly a kite" But if you are reading a series and that series becomes geo restricted after a certain book or you simply want to buy that book because it sounds like a good read, then you have every right to attempt to buy it. It is a win-win.

The alternative is to go the darknet route and the resulting issues that brings to light.

[Yapyap]

Thanks, sabredog and mbovenka - that has been the way I've been thinking, too.

Yes, I realise that it's breaking the rules, but... well, I've seen quite a few authors, who - while being extremely angry about piracy and about people obtaining their books for free - have also in the same breath mentioned that they don't see it as a problem if someone breaks the restrictions (or removes DRM), just as long as they get their money.

I think that's why I was rather surprised by tompe's suggestion - that it's basically no different from piracy, and that it hurts someone. Because I really cannot see whom I'm hurting, here - unless the author has some really odd personal reason for not wishing anyone from a certain country to read their books, I suppose, in which case, well, tough. (Especially as they can't keep people from those countries from buying physical books anyway.)

[Ken Maltby]

You will read it here, from some, that DRM is required to prevent Piracy.

You will also see the slightly more rational DRM supporter that will claim it prevents
"casual" piracy.

What you don't see, from the DRM side of the discussions, is mention of the real
purpose of these mechanisms; to restrict the purchase and/or use of the ebooks to
support the retailer's bottom line. An attempt to make it so that you can only buy
your ebooks from them, and only use it under their control of devices.

Luck;
Ken

[DiapDealer]

I refuse to put an arbitrary limit (even a percentage of its physical counterpart's price) on what I'm willing to pay for an ebook. Each author/series/subject is different and I base what I'm willing to pay on how much I'm looking forward to reading it (and how long I'm willing to wait to read it). Regardless of the medium. The content is the only thing I've ever placed a value on... even before ebooks came along. *shrugs*

[Elfwreck]

I have reasons for my $6 limit: Baen's ebooks top out at $6, and there are several I know I'd love to read that I haven't bought yet. So that's my comparison point when I see another book--"Do I know I'd love this more than those books I haven't got yet?" The answer's always no. If there weren't a reasonably large pool of $6 ebooks I wanted, I might make the price point more variable.

Nonfiction doesn't have that limit; my current high price for nonfic was $30 for the SJ Games Vorkosigan book. (Gaming manuals = reference works = nonfiction.) I've spent $10-15 on a few things from DriveThruRPG.com.

However, still not dealing with DRM, which cuts me out of most mainstream-published nonfic. That's an occasional real pinch; I can name half a dozen nonfic books I'd love to read, and would be willing to pay for, if they weren't DRM'd. I'm waiting for the used book price to drop to something where I won't mind paying the $4 shipping, and ordering them to chop & scan. (I'd look to checking out the physical books from the library, but recent experiences with hardcovers have taught me that no, I really can't stand reading paper anymore unless it's an art book or a reference work.)

I'm not seeing how this is beneficial to the publishers, but it's certainly their right to set the prices & limits how they want them.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by EscapeVelocity

The highest cost for books, will be marketing costs....not production costs.

No, the highest cost is the editing cost. As it is currently for paperbooks. Savings on printing, etc., are 10-20% of the cost.

$3 million revenue on 1 million sales is better than $2 million revenue on 200,000 sales.

Yes, clearly.

But there are significant problems with this simplistic analysis. The biggest question is whether you can really quintuple your sales by dropping the price from $10 to $3. I am very skeptical that you can - it's rare that even a freebie is downloaded millions of times.

And of course $2 million revenue on 200,000 sales is better than $1.5 million revenue on 500,000 sales.

But even better would be $2 million on 200,000 sales. Then later drop the price to $6 and get, say, $1.8 million on 300,000 sales. Then drop the price again to $3 and get $1.5 million on 500,000 sales. Total profit is $5.3 million using your assumptions.

And of course this is basically the approach that publishers are taking.

This will also drive ebook reader sales. As people seek to lower the costs of their reading. Reading will also significantly increase as an activity, creating a larger market for future sales.

But alas...

Perhaps - but right now only 10-15% of the population reads one book a month or more, and I don't think that dropping the price of books would have much of an effect on this numbers, given that books are already free at libraries.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There are also significant number of buyers for whom price is not particularly a consideration, and I'd include myself in that. Reading is one of my main means of recreation, and if I choose to spend £100 or so a month on books, that's my concern, and I can well afford to do so. I know many people who spend a lot more than that on clothes, or just going to the pub. I choose to buy books.

+1

Like a lot of middle aged people with jobs, other responsibilities, and other interests, finding the time to read is a lot more difficult than finding money to pay for reading. $160/month is 10-15 recently released full length books; I will typically have time to read one book a week (unless I have the week off).

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

No, the highest cost is the editing cost. As it is currently for paperbooks. Savings on printing, etc., are 10-20% of the cost.

Though editing cost is high, I also think that marketing may well be the higher cost. Without a marketing budget, no one will know about the book, and it will get practically no sales. (I am a typical example of an author with good product but no marketing budget, so I sell effectively nothing.)

Of course, major publishers wrap "marketing costs" around a lot of in-place marketing systems for their bulk catalog, especially their big name authors, so that cost will be partially lost in the shuffle... the real price paid for "marketing" is usually nebulous. Individual authors can give a much better idea of what their marketing costs are per book, and those that sell well will probably tell you that their marketing costs aren't insignificant.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Let me put it this way. Piracy is 100% wrong, and circumventing geo-restrictions is 1% wrong. They are not in the same league. The first is taking something for free that you have no right to and depriving the author of his income. Like driving 100 when the speed limit is 50. The second is buying something and fully paying for it. Sure, it is a minor bending of somebody's rules (that really only apply to the seller). Call it driving 52 when the speed limit is 50.

But sorry, I don't feel guilty about it.

I just think that is a double standard or just bad reasoning to motivate your actions.

I for different reasons think they are equally bad. But that is not so bad at all. Probably in your 1% wrong thingy.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

Whom do I hurt when I occasionally pretend to be an American in order to buy an ebook that is available to Americans but not to me? Do I hurt the author by giving her money? Do I hurt the publisher of the ebook by giving them money? Do I hurt the bookshop where I'm buying it from by giving them money?

You make it less likely that it will be a locale edition of the book that people can buy without circumvent computer checks. So you are in that sense hurting local publishers and local people that do not know how to buy the books they want to read.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by tompe

I just think that is a double standard or just bad reasoning to motivate your actions.

I for different reasons think they are equally bad. But that is not so bad at all. Probably in your 1% wrong thingy.

If paying for something is just as bad (in your mind) as just taking it without paying, then we will just have to agree to disagree. Though my guess is that only the giggly guy will be able to follow your line of reasoning.