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#16 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Amazon is in the business of making money. Like Walmart, the way they keep the prices low is to push to cost on to the provider. You don't make money long term by selling a product for less than you pay for it. |
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#17 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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As far as how much midlist authors are effected, those figures are very hard to get. The link to John Scalzi's numbers for his last book seem to indicate that he is seeing significant sales in the audiobook arena. Perhaps, some of those readers are shifting to audiobooks rather than ebooks. Audiobooks tend to be more expensive than ebooks. Redshirts sales (June 5th, 2012 to Jan. 14th, 2013 the period that Redshirt was in hard back) Hardcover - 26,604 eBook - 35,667 audio book - 17,008 Lock in sales (Hardback period, i.e. an apple to apple comparison, August 10, 2015) Hardcover - 22,500 eBook - 24,000 Audiobook - 41,000 So yes, the ebook sales went down, but the audio sales went up and the total unit sales were more for Lock In (87,500) than Redshirts (70,279). Redshirts had an ebook price point of $12 while Lock In had an ebook price of just under $11, i.e. Lock In sold less ebooks than Redshirts at a lower price. That doesn't exactly follow the narrative being pushed. http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/01/1...re-title-2013/ http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/08/1...re-title-2015/ One of the more important points that Scalzi makes is that the sales estimate figures for his book is way off when compared to the actual sales figure that he got, something that should be kept in mind when discussing sales from newspaper articles that base their numbers on those estimates. |
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#18 |
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Somehow I get the feeling Amazon is having a good laugh over this. They are making money no matter what. The publishers--not so much.
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#19 |
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Isn't this "no blockbuster" explanation given nearly everytime sales go down? Maybe that isn't a sound business plan to just try to generate bestellers.
The largest bulk of profit comes from the back- and midlist. It is not that spectacular and it is spread over many books. Mind you, I don't say bestellers aren't important, and can if totally spectacular improve earnings enormous. But hoping for a lottery win is not good business. |
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#20 | |
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Publishers do not live and die on the oddball bestseller. ![]() |
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#21 | |
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Last edited by DiapDealer; 09-06-2015 at 09:44 PM. |
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#22 |
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I think the current contracts are about two things: perception of worth and Amazon's market share.
The BPHs are desperately trying to avoid the iTunes scenario. Jobs successfully took control of pricing away from the music industry. Thanks to him, a song is worth $0.99. Forever. It's branded into the public consciousness. Although if you're willing to forego owning the song, you can go even cheaper. The BPHs *really* want to avoid giving Bezos control of what a book is worth. They've only been partially successful. That's the danger in dealing with a retailer that cares more about market share then profit. I'm pretty sure the BPHs fear an Amazon monopsony, and I don't think they're wrong to. And speaking of Amazon market share, combating that is another reason. Agency has its faults, but it does allow for a range of retailers, even if those retailers can't cut profit margins to the bone like Amazon does. (Kobo, for example, is reliant on Agency to the point that they've lobbied to keep it.) I honestly don't mind Agency, as long as the publishers aren't idiots. (Sadly, not always the case.) If I can get my e-book for a little less than the mass-market paperbound, I'm okay. |
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#23 |
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Books by authors whose previous books I've really liked, I might buy at hardcover prices(depending on the size of my TBR list budget and desire to read that book ASAP)
But the vast majority of books? Why spend hard-cover prices for something I'll probably like when I can spend less than a third the cost on a different book I'll probably like just as much? And while most books are sold to people who buy fewer books then I do, I don't see why the reasoning wouldn't still hold true, price matters more when you are less sure how much you'll like it. |
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#24 | |
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Yes it was a sale but if even 100,000 buy it while it is on sale that is still money out of the author's pocket. Now if Amazon is so against 99 cents why do they allow it? Better yet, please explain how amazon is so against 99 cent books? They make 65 cents on almost every 99 cent book. Why do they allow countdown deals at 99 cents? They only get 30 cents on those. Please show me in writing where Amazon is against 99 cent books. Or is this the royalty thing? If they were really against that price point, they could disallow it. I mean you cannot go lower than 99 cents. And perma-free is technically against their TOS but they overlook it. If it bothered them that much, they could quit doing it. Oh and on the free books, if Amazon is so against it, why are there nearly 1 million public domain books free there. Heck that was an advertising campaign. Those "loss leaders" bring in customers. Long as I am there might as well grab a reading light, baby gate, batteries and a charger, diaper pail (that was a gift), and the list goes on. |
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#25 |
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#26 | |
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Amazon doesn't forbid 99 cent *regular price* titles because some are PD or shorts. But they do discourage it. They allow 99 cent sales but that isn't the everyday pricing; just, as I said, temporary promos. The same with free books. They allow it but they put limits on it. If they didn't care they wouldn't limit. The Other thing is Amazon has a pricing recommendation tool for indie authors based on genre also-boughts. In most cases it recommends higher prices than prevailing rates. There is this general perception out there that Amazon wants to drive ebook prices to rock bottom; they don't. They tolerate freebies and 99 centers but their own policies are for regular prices closer to $5 than zero. (Author Earnings has documented this repeatedly.) After all, there has to be room for promotional discounts. There is a sweet spot for ebook pricing that maximizes profits and all evidence from Kindle and Smashwords is that it lies in the $4-8 range, depending on genre and author fanbase. Pricing normal books lower is about buying visibility, not generating revenue. That is how price jogging works: you price the book a bit higher than the average price you want to maintain and then drop it dramatically for a day or two once in a while. Regular price sales go up after the sale ends, making up for the losses from the promo. Modern Retail pricing is a dynamic thing, not a matter of setting a fixed price and praying. |
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#27 | |
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![]() But I think my analysis will continue to be valid at least as long as the tradpubs retain copyright ownership of the backlist. Well, they might die slowly of a thousand paper cuts on the oddball bestseller... |
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#28 | |
Just a Yellow Smiley.
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I would love it if on Weds all the grocery stores decided they need to put chicken, pork tenderloin, ground beef, canned goods and assorted other stuff on sale. Thing is, I have never seen one word from Amazon about e-book pricing. Everytime I have heard your argument, it was from someone who thought all books should be priced higher so they didn't have to compete with the cheap books. Yes, I have heard it many times. My point is if Amazon wanted all books to start at $2.99, they could do that. Please show me where Amazon has said they don't like 99 cents and free. In those words or something similar. You do know they also give big sellers of other items discounts on the fees. If Amazon didn't want someone picking up mostly freebies and 99 cent books, then I am sure they could put a limit on how many a customer could get. Instead they tell us, thank you for being a very valuable customer. Not to mention if a person buys three 99 cent ebooks, Amazon has made $2.05. If a person buys a $2.99 book, Amazon only made 89 cents. My math says Amazon is profiting off the low price books. But I guess, making less money is better than making more money. See Amazon is customer centric and knows they will sell more at 99 cents than at 2.99. That is overall, not per author. |
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#29 | ||
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Here's a real life example.
On social media someone posted a screenshot from the bio of Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and Tesla, among other companies. That screenshot, along with reviews I'd read and other chatter about the book that I'd consumed convinced me to go to Amazon and make a uncharacteristic (for me) full-price purchase of non-fiction tome. At Amazon it's listed at $16.99 for the Kindle edition. At 9.99-12.99, I'd have continued with the impulse purchase. At $16.99 I closed that browser tab and went to my local library in search of either the e or p-book. From the original article: Quote:
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#30 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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The book industry isn't that different from the music industry, the movie industry, the game industry or even the restaurant industry. The big hit is what drives the entertainment industry and what generates the big profits. As far as midlist, I gave an example of real numbers by a real midlist author. His overall sales number were up. His ebook numbers were down, even though the later book sold for less than the earlier book. That argues that the narrative being pushed, that sales are purely based on price, isn't valid. |
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