DOJ suing Apple over ebooks.

[afv011]

Apple wants to go to trial in the US over allegations of price-fixing in the ebook market, the company's lawyer said yesterday, but it may end up settling with the EU.

Source

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by whitearrow

The problem is that big publishers haven't historically considered their customers to be readers, but the retailers they dealt with on a day to day basis. It's retailers they've marketed to in order to get prime store space, and retailers they've tried to impress with their newest offering. Even getting publishers to think readers are actually important to their business is an entirely new mindset for them.

Their resistance to ebooks is evidence of this, because they are resisting with all their might, despite how much readers demonstrably want ebooks available. Their tone-deafness on pricing, the inability to contact a human at a publisher directly when you find an ebook with problems, all of it -- as unbelievable as it seems, the BPH's still don't seem to get that the people who actually read the books are really important to their business.

Er, Mike Shatzkin had a post on this very topic , which I will just link to without commenting, since apparently I shiould stop linking to or quoting folks who actually know the publishing business.

http://www.idealog.com/blog/should-t...or-a-b2c-world

Long story, he thinks publishers should ditch " imprint" names like "Knopf' and "Crown" instead of just "Random House".

As for Ebooks, publishers have embraced ebooks. Thjey just haven't embraced pricing schemes that their analysts tell them would inflict substantial losses on themselves and the authors they represent.

[ProfCrash]

No, they have not embraced the change sin the markets that say that the way they sold paper books will work for selling e-books. They want prices that reflect the costs needed to maintain the paper book market and not the e-book market.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

No, they have not embraced the change sin the markets that say that the way they sold paper books will work for selling e-books. They want prices that reflect the costs needed to maintain the paper book market and not the e-book market.

BINGO!!!

Ebooks are not paperbacks or hardcovers & I refuse to pay the same price of these two other products for an ebook. It's as simple as that for me. But I still find plenty to read without paying those bloated prices.

BPs either get smart & get off their lazy butts & accept the reality of the ebook world & drop prices or shrivel up & die, I don't really care one way or the other since I have found other alternatives to them.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

No, they have not embraced the change sin the markets that say that the way they sold paper books will work for selling e-books. They want prices that reflect the costs needed to maintain the paper book market and not the e-book market.

Very much so.

The Agency 6 have been seen to be all about profit. Amazon may not be perfect, but they do provide for indie publishing and for the customer.

[HansTWN]

If publishers are adapting, they are doing it the "Kodak way". Too little, too late.

We are talking 9.99, not 0.99. If you cannot make money at that price, then Amazon will indeed eat you for breakfast.

[JoHunt]

Originally Posted by crossi

It seems that in many cases the BPH's are actually hostile to the people they need to keep in business. They treat us like potential thieves with DRM, they post blogs and articles that sound resentful that their customers aren't all willing to blindly pay inflated book prices, they retaliate against authors that self publish even rejected books and they seem to be at war with one of their major distributors. A business that is hostile to customers (readers), suppliers (authors) and their distributors doesn't seem very healthy.

Well said. And perhaps the biggest irony of all is that their hostility has completely backfired: many readers are refusing to pay inflated prices and are embracing independent authors, not to mention the fact that the BPH's have willingly strengthened Amazon by forcing it to keep every penny of its commission on ebook sales.

[Fbone]

I don't understand this "if they can not make money on a $9.99 ebook" then they need to ....

For Amazon to sell it at $9.99 the publishers have to accept a lower wholesale price. Currently, they receive $9.09 (70% of $12.99) under Agency model. Subtract out the author's royalty of $2.27 (minimum) and we are left with $6.82 for the publishers. Has any publisher said they can't earn a profit on $6.82?

For ebooks already $9.99 under Agency we have $6.99 minus $1.75 = $5.24

Now if media/people are saying the new wholesale price should be $10 then the retailers have to tack on their costs which brings us to $11-13+ which we have now.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by afv011

Source

This makes it sound rather like EU law is stronger than US legislation in some respects (happens quite often with UK law, often for the best) - particularly this one, certainly....

Amazon, "tamed" by legal restraints ?

Surely not........

[tompe]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

Ebooks are not paperbacks or hardcovers & I refuse to pay the same price of these two other products for an ebook. It's as simple as that for me. But I still find plenty to read without paying those bloated prices.

No, they are not the same. E-book are much better. They take no space, you can search them, you can comment in the book and let your friends see the comment and so on.

I find it very strange that people have a strong opinion about what the price should be based on the value to them. I do not understand why people think so strongly that the ebook should be cheaper.

I also do not understand why the ebook market is so different from the paper book market. What is the difference that makes it impossible to use the model with selling books at a higher price in the beginning and later lowering the price?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by sabredog

The Agency 6 have been seen to be all about profit. Amazon may not be perfect, but they do provide for indie publishing and for the customer.

Exactly how have that been seen? From my perspective it is still all about sustainability and long term survival or adaption to a book market that promotes good writing.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

We are talking 9.99, not 0.99. If you cannot make money at that price, then Amazon will indeed eat you for breakfast.

But all books do not make money. Book publishing is a gambling and risk taking. So the income from books that makes a profit have to cover the gamble cost on the books that did not break even.

Amazon have bypassed this gambling. So of course they can have a different prince since they put all the risk costs on the author.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by tompe

Exactly how have that been seen? From my perspective it is still all about sustainability and long term survival or adaption to a book market that promotes good writing.

Tosh. It is better for the reader to be able to decide what they want to read rather than what the BPH's decide readers are to read.

I can make that decision myself, thanks. BPH's particularly in Australia consider our market to be rip-off heaven. See Blue Tyson's analysis of that on Teleread.

At least Amazon are encouraging new writers by actually publishing their books (good, bad or indifferent).

These authors in the majority would not have a snowflakes chance in hell of being able to publish if they only had BPH's to deal with.

Amazon may not be perfect but by God, they are a modern company distributing item and product the way the customer of today wants. If that makes them painted by tall poppy haters as an evil empire run by chief enforcer Darth Bezos, then pity help the BPH's because they are truly going to become steamrolled by change.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by sabredog

Tosh. It is better for the reader to be able to decide what they want to read rather than what the BPH's decide readers are to read.

This is irrelevant to my question. How has it been shown that for the publisher the agency thing was all about profit?

[plib]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Now if media/people are saying the new wholesale price should be $10 then the retailers have to tack on their costs which brings us to $11-13+ which we have now.

I believe they're saying the new retail price should be $10.