Cheaper e-books will kill us, says publisher

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by tompe

Can you not do that to a certain degree using HTML as base format?

This is actually one of the whole design concepts of DocBook. It is an XML based storage format for books/text/documents. The XML tags are used to denote sections/chapters/footnotes/etc/etc... Then transforms are used to create a final layout.

This is how many software applications do their help. With a single source you can generate Html help, WinHelp, Word Docs, etc. Each format can even have different content included/excluded as needed.

There are tools that support the DocBook XML format that you use to edit your document. If you find a problem with one of the output files you either fix the source content or annotation or you fix the transformation/layout file.

See http://www.docbook.org/ for more info if you are interested.

Of course, publishers don't work this way because they didn't start working this way.

BOb

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by tdavie

I didn't know that Baen sold DRM free books. Are they compatible with the Sony Reader? Thanks for the heads up!!!!

Yes, they have multiple formats for every book they sell. LRF is one of them. I heard talk that they were adding ePub too.

BOb

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I agree. I can't explain it, but I do know that I perceive a body of text differently when it is on paper instead of a screen.

I'm just curious, Nate (that is, there is no agenda behind this question)...

Have you had experience of this on the screen of an eInk reader? I'm curious, because of the oft-posed more "paper-like" qualities of such a device...wondering if that is (part of) the perceptual difference.

Cheers,
Marc

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

I'm just curious, Nate (that is, there is no agenda behind this question)...

Have you had experience of this on the screen of an eInk reader? I'm curious, because of the oft-posed more "paper-like" qualities of such a device...wondering if that is (part of) the perceptual difference.

Cheers,
Marc

Interesting question. Unfortunately, I can't answer. I never tried to an eInk device in the editorial process in the same way I use paper or a computer.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Interesting question. Unfortunately, I can't answer. I never tried to an eInk device in the editorial process in the same way I use paper or a computer.

I would guess most if not all ebook devices aren't as helpful during the editorial process as a computer would be, so I kind of expected that. Still curious though.

Cheers,
Marc

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

I would guess most if not all ebook devices aren't as helpful during the editorial process as a computer would be, so I kind of expected that. Still curious though.

Cheers,
Marc

I suspect a larger reader, such as an Iliad or DR (or Plastic Logic when they are available), with touchscreen and annotations capabilities might be helpful.

[Spectrum]

The dummies of book publishing industry just like movie and music industry don't get it!

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by Spectrum

The dummies of book publishing industry just like movie and music industry don't get it!

The ones who are still in business 20 years from now will have gotten it though.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Phogg

Best post of the whole thread.

Thanks you very much

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by BuddyBoy

Actually Gudy, MMPBs do cannibalize hardcover sales, which is why they aren't usually released at the same time as the hardcover.

I know, I didn't contest that. What I contest is that this is an argument for the ridiculously high ebook prices one sees everywhere. Sure, put the book out in hardcover and ebook first, at essentially the same price (modulo an offset to account for the lack of rights the customer has with a DRMd ebook compared to the hardcover). No sense in not squeezing as much money as you can out of the "early adopters", after all.

But as soon as the paperback comes out, the ebook price must drop to slightly below that in order to milk the mass market.

Originally Posted by BuddyBoy

Publishing houses aren't charities, you know.

Precisely, which, given that no-one has stopped putting out MMBP editions, means that they are making money from those. Which also means that there is no good reason why they wouldn't make a similar amount of money from a similarly priced ebook.

In other words, there is a relatively simple pricing rule in here: the ebook version must not be more expensive than the cheapest paper edition out there, and DRMd ebooks must actually be cheaper in order to account for the decreased utility (no lending, no re-selling, etc.) and hence value to the consumer.

Now, there is a lot of discussion about how much cheaper DRMd ebooks should be, but the simple way to find out is to ask the market. Right now, the market apparently says mostly "No" to the current pricing structure. The alternative is of course to follow the Baen example and just not bother. It seems to work quite well for them, I note.

[Lemurion]

Baen/Webscriptions are profitable at $6.00/per book with no DRM, and before anyone says that's because it's the publisher selling directly, they have several other publishers now selling through Webscriptions at the same price point which means it must be working or the number of publishers would have decreased rather than increased.

So we can tell that at a minimum - selling DRM-free eBooks at $6.00 each (at least for books currently in mmpb) is a viable business model.

That works out to about 3/4 the cost of a conventional SFF mmpb.

It certainly looks like we've found somewhere to start.

[Angst]

[quote]... Since we have to assume that any e-book sold replaces a printed book (Edit: Bezos, do you hear this?), ...[\quote]

Not true. I haven't bought a single paperback since switching to ereaders. I have about 20+ books downloaded that I haven't read yet. I will have to finish all of those before I even consider buying a paperback. (or perhaps if my ereader breaks!)

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Baen/Webscriptions are profitable at $6.00/per book with no DRM, and before anyone says that's because it's the publisher selling directly, they have several other publishers now selling through Webscriptions at the same price point which means it must be working or the number of publishers would have decreased rather than increased.

So we can tell that at a minimum - selling DRM-free eBooks at $6.00 each (at least for books currently in mmpb) is a viable business model.

That works out to about 3/4 the cost of a conventional SFF mmpb.

It certainly looks like we've found somewhere to start.

Note that Baen/Webscriptions sell DRM-free eBooks for $6.00 each even when those books first come out in hardcover! And their average selling price is actually lower than $6 due to bundles and other discounts. And yes, they are profitable.

Xenophon

[BuddyBoy]

[QUOTE=Angst;344049]

... Since we have to assume that any e-book sold replaces a printed book (Edit: Bezos, do you hear this?), ...[\quote]

Not true. I haven't bought a single paperback since switching to ereaders. I have about 20+ books downloaded that I haven't read yet. I will have to finish all of those before I even consider buying a paperback. (or perhaps if my ereader breaks!)

Um, what the original quote means is that people who buy the ebook don't buy the paperback so by your own admission it is true.

[BuddyBoy]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

Note that Baen/Webscriptions sell DRM-free eBooks for $6.00 each even when those books first come out in hardcover! And their average selling price is actually lower than $6 due to bundles and other discounts. And yes, they are profitable.

Xenophon

My only quibble would be that the $6 represents a wholesale price since no retailer is involved (and thus equates to $12 retail), and your - and their - definition of profitable may not be enough. What's their ROI? There are a lot of business eeking our a living for the love of what they do, but in a larger business sense, I wouldn't really consider them "profitable."