eBook prices?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Inventory taxes are a fairy story.

Since Jim Baen gave that reply POD has altered the situation.

Not sure what the situation is with inventory taxes are these days, but it very much was not a fairy story some 20 years ago. It was a major expense for at least one small independent bookstore owner that I knew.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Every year? I suppose some people do that. Personally, I'm on my second device in 8 years. I would still be on my first device if it hadn't failed.

I'm on my 3rd * since I joined MR in 2010. Both EZReaders had battery , turn button issues by the time they were retired.
* dedicated reader, used for >90% of ebook reading. I only read on my TAB when color or PDF is needed (rare).

My first TAB failed the '5 foot drop test' , but it was a race between that and old age (battery) fails.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Inventory taxes are a fairy story.

Since Jim Baen gave that reply POD has altered the situation.

Maybe in the UK
But in the early 80's, Inventory Tax avoidance, was driving many California companies to keep inventories out of state, in more friendly territories.

No warehouse, no Local Rented buildings, no business (equipment) property tax, no jobs and all the local services that employees need.

Taxes have driven many a job off shore. I live in the heart of the Silicon valley. When I got out of the Navy, many tech companies were building hardware products all around here. The entire gambit of jobs were available from Assembler to Engineer. Now, all it seems that are left is R&D and Software and the Data Centers that support them.

Taxes and Regulation are killing American jobs

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by darryl

There would still be books even if everyone pirated them, but the standard would very likely be much lower and the choice much more restricted. Morality apart, it makes sense to pay for your ebooks, or at least most of them.

There was a time I felt justified in downloading books, and downloaded collections from Usenet all the time. I assure you, the choice was not more restricted. Back then, no one considered themselves pirates, digitizing books was a labor of love, because there wasn't a retail market yet. (I was reading on a Palm III at the time, that and the Usenet reference should give you an idea of the timeline.) I was able to get backlist books that are still not officially available as ebooks yet.

The standard was much lower, as you say, and many of those books had OCR errors that were pretty ranged from making a book unreadable to downright funny. For a while I thought that there was a character in the Wheel of Time named "Thorn", because the scanner's OCR software read the 'm' in Thom as 'rn'.

(And yes, I've deleted those Usenet downloads, and my library is entirely legit now. I'm of the opinion that (legal or not) the illegitimate digital books served the purpose of proving there was a market for them, much like MP3s did the same for the digital music market. There just aren't any arguments for illegally copying books now that they're widely available.)

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Little.Egret

Inventory taxes are a fairy story.

I wish the State of Georgia would considered the taxes I pay on my inventory to be imaginary. Of course if I don't pay them I can lose my business and go to jail. I would also lose the $200.00 for bypassing GO on the way to jail.
Inventory taxes, in Georgia, fall under property taxes and are considered income by the State of Georgia. I consider anything I have yet to sell as an expense. Of course since Georgia sets the laws my opinion is just gas. And if you do not sell it ion the first year you will continue to pay taxes on it until you do. So IMO you are wrong.
Apache

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

What does the price of the device has to do with the cost of entertainment for it? My cellular Oasis 2 cost more than I paid for my new TV.

The same can be asked about the book prices. Why do people expect the books cheaper for their device???

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by GlennD

There was a time I felt justified in downloading books, and downloaded collections from Usenet all the time. I assure you, the choice was not more restricted. Back then, no one considered themselves pirates, digitizing books was a labor of love, because there wasn't a retail market yet. (I was reading on a Palm III at the time, that and the Usenet reference should give you an idea of the timeline.) I was able to get backlist books that are still not officially available as ebooks yet.

The standard was much lower, as you say, and many of those books had OCR errors that were pretty ranged from making a book unreadable to downright funny. For a while I thought that there was a character in the Wheel of Time named "Thorn", because the scanner's OCR software read the 'm' in Thom as 'rn'.

(And yes, I've deleted those Usenet downloads, and my library is entirely legit now. I'm of the opinion that (legal or not) the illegitimate digital books served the purpose of proving there was a market for them, much like MP3s did the same for the digital music market. There just aren't any arguments for illegally copying books now that they're widely available.)

That's pretty much my experience. I played in the Usenet sandbox and downloaded a lot of ebooks mostly because no one else had ebooks. Some ebooks were almost professionally done, others not so much. A lot depended on how many people were willing to proof read and compare to the original text. Of course, it was a matter of honor that I had paper copies of all the ebooks that I downloaded back then. Got to feed the authors.

Before the Kindle store opened up, Baen was the only books easy to find and those never showed up on Usenet. I stopped looking at Usenet about the time that the Sony store, then the Kindle store opened up. I think I still have those books archived somewhere, but they aren't in my calibre library and I've purchased the vast majority from the Kindle store as they became available.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

The same can be asked about the book prices. Why do people expect the books cheaper for their device???

Cheaper than what? Compared to paper book prices? Of course it has to be cheaper than paper book prices. But that has less to do with the price of a specific book, but with what I am willing to pay for a book regardless whether it is paper or electronic. The price I am willing to pay for a paper book does no longer exceed $1 - basically limited to remaindered books that DollarTree sells. And even those are a waste of money when one grabs my attention and I cave in and purchase - I no longer chose to read paper books as it is much more comfortable for me to just use my book(*). I know this beforehand, I also know it when I try to convince myself that 'oh this one is different, I for sure will give paper a try again.' So, yeah, the prices of big publisher's drove me to get my primary reading fulfilled by Indie, Inc.

(*) 'My book' meaning my eink ereader device in this context.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

Cheaper than what? Compared to paper book prizes? Of course it has to be cheaper than paper book prizes.

Where can I get one of these paper book prizes?

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Where can I get one of these paper book prizes?

Thanks for noticing. Pun unintentionally intended. Honest spelling mistake. My excuse, and I am sticking to it, I did it on purpose.

[Fiat_Lux]

Originally Posted by theducks

Taxes have driven many a job off shore. I live in the heart of the Silicon valley

Not just jobs. Also conventions. I've come across several small businesses that have a formal rule of no conferences or conventions that could be even misconstrued to take place in California, and an informal policy that no employees are allowed to visit California. Their nightmare is that an employee on vacation, might inadvertently do something, that triggers something that mandates that the company adhere to both their local state laws and regulations, and those of California.

The example one owner gave me, was attending a three day conference in San Francisco, and signing a sales contract during the conference. That single act established a business nexus for both tax purposes, and regulatory compliance.

Taxes and Regulation are killing American jobs.

One SOHO owner I talked with, is slowly firing vendors who have either their place of incorporation, or headquarters, in California. His concern being the regulatory burden.

It isn't things like The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 that concern him, as much as it is the documentation, and paperwork for things that his organization never deals with, but still has to prove it is in full compliance with.

Amber

[ZGottlieb]

I agree with you that it never made sense to charge more for an ebook. I would have rather the market went the other way, where I bought a book and for $1 more, I get the ebook.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ZGottlieb

I agree with you that it never made sense to charge more for an ebook.

I'm not sure one can make such a definitive statement. Consider the fact that in the UK for example, printed books are zero-rated for VAT (ie no tax), while ebooks have 20% VAT added.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm not sure one can make such a definitive statement. Consider the fact that in the UK for example, printed books are zero-rated for VAT (ie no tax), while ebooks have 20% VAT added.

Not to mention that I only WANT the ebook. I don't want the physical book. I'm not sure a better example exists of why ebooks could easily cost more (even though they rarely do when all is said and done) than their physical counterparts.

I (and others like me) clearly value ebooks more than physical ones. So I consider the fact that I tend to get the format I value more for a little less than the format I don't value as much to be a bonus.

The immediacy and convenience factors of ebooks are things I'm more than willing to part with my hard-earned money for.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Not to mention that I only WANT the ebook. I don't want the physical book. I'm not sure a better example exists of why ebooks could easily cost more (even though they rarely do when all is said and done) than their physical counterparts.

I (and others like me) clearly value ebooks more than physical ones. So I consider the fact that I tend to get the format I value more for a little less than the format I don't value as much to be a bonus.

The immediacy and convenience factors of ebooks are things I'm more than willing to part with my hard-earned money for.

For fiction, I completely agree. I have a few treasured paper fiction books, such as my "deluxe" illustrated editions of the three LOTR books and my leather-bound 36-volume complete works of Dickens, but I've long since replaced the overwhelming majority of my fiction library with ebooks.

I still buy a fair number of non-fiction books as paper books, though, particularly when they have a lot of photographs. Eg I've got a large lavishly-illustrated hardback book called "The Royal Tombs of Egypt" which has several fold-out photographs in it which are about 4 feet long. Really wouldn't work too well as an ebook .

Give me ebooks every time for fiction, though.