Why e-books?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Average prices are going down for sure.
Simply because people are buying more of the cheaper ebooks and less of the expensive ones. That much is documented.

I may have misunderstood Barry's post. I understood him to be saying that the prices of ebooks from BPH's is constantly falling. I see no evidence of that.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by barryem

I think the idea that the big 5 are trying to keep prices high so people will buy more paper books is an oversimplification. I suspect there's much more to it than that and that it's much more about simply keeping book prices high.

My guess is that publishers are afraid Amazon's discounting will eventually bring the normal price for new books down and they'll eventually find themselves getting their share of $10 books instead of $15 books.

I doubt they really care whether people buy ebooks or paper books as long as they pay high prices.

Actually that's probably an oversimplification as well. They probably would prefer people buy paper books because most of those have a limited lifetime and ebooks stay available forever and keep going down in price, competing with higher priced paper book.

But I think their real concern isn't ebooks vs paper, it's high prices vs low prices.

I think the publishers are playing a losing game but I'm not sure there's a winning game available to them. The sky is falling and they're reacting.

Of course no-one knows how this will all play out but I suspect that in a few years book prices will be lower and large publishers will be making less money per book. It's sure in their best interest to try to put that off as long as possible.

Barry

Your limited lifetime makes no sense.
If HarryT buys a paper book, he can loan it to Diap, Don, Paul, George and Ringo. Or he could sell it to you. Or he could donate it to a thrift store where I might pick it up for less than a dollar.
That is 8 people to one paper book.
However, if HarryT buys the ebook, he might could loan it once.
So 6 of the others and maybe all 7 would have to buy the ebook themselves.

Therefore the argument of the big 5 wanting everyone to buy paper does not hold up profit wise.
I figure the reason they want to set the price on ebooks boils down to the fact that they more than likely get a set percentage on ebook sales. It might be 50% or it might be 70%.

On physical books, they get a set price not based off sales.
If you are guaranteeing me say $7.70 a book (made up number), if you want to discount it, go for it because my money stays the same.

Now I don't know about most people but if someone is selling something for me for a percentage, I don't want that someone to be able to lower the price willy nilly.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I get the impression that paperbacks are, on the whole, cheaper in the US than the UK. Typical UK price for a paperback is between £6 and £8 (about $9 to $12). What's a typical price in the US?

Trade paperbacks are about $9 to $14.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Trade paperbacks are about $9 to $14.

How about MMPBs, such as the Star Trek books you're fond of. What do they cost?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by HarryT

How about MMPBs, such as the Star Trek books you're fond of. What do they cost?

Most MMPBs cost $7.99.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Most MMPBs cost $7.99.

And a typical MMPB costs either £6.99 or £7.99 in the UK, so the US price is roughly two thirds the UK price. Significantly cheaper.

[ottdmk]

To go back, briefly, to the original question on this topic: I prefer ebooks because of many of the same reasons others have already posted. Storage space & portability are the two big ones. Being able to read in bed without a separate light is also nice. I find I can get just as lost in my Kobo as I did in physical books, so all is good with me.

As for pricing: the combination of Agency for ebooks and wholesale for pbooks is sometimes frustrating to me. I don't buy many books any more; I tend to read a lot more library books because my Kobo makes that so easy for me. But still, I like to collect the works of certain authors. Having the same list price for an ebook as the pbook is a little annoying, but I can tolerate it. Thankfully, for most of the books I'm interested in, the ebook is bit cheaper then the MMPB, which is as it should be. Even the Dresden Files are priced like this currently, will wonders never cease.

Sometimes things get even better. A while back I was looking at purchasing a fun little series called the Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger. At the time, I was annoyed that the box set of trade paperbacks was discounted considerably below the e-book set. No longer the case. Now, the e-book set is $16.99, the trade paperbacks are out of print and the MMPB of the series is $9.99 per book (for a total of $49.95 for the whole set.) The series is published by Hachette's Orbit imprint, if you were wondering.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

Sometimes things get even better. A while back I was looking at purchasing a fun little series called the Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger. At the time, I was annoyed that the box set of trade paperbacks was discounted considerably below the e-book set. No longer the case. Now, the e-book set is $16.99, the trade paperbacks are out of print and the MMPB of the series is $9.99 per book (for a total of $49.95 for the whole set.) The series is published by Hachette's Orbit imprint, if you were wondering.

If you haven't read it, it's a very nice reading (I got them as they were published )

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I get the impression that paperbacks are, on the whole, cheaper in the US than the UK. Typical UK price for a paperback is between £6 and £8 (about $9 to $12). What's a typical price in the US?

In the US the BPHs are phasing out mass market for everything but reprints of bestsellers. Massmarket Paperback originals are a dying breed.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I may have misunderstood Barry's post. I understood him to be saying that the prices of ebooks from BPH's is constantly falling. I see no evidence of that.

On the contrary.
With the switch to agency BPH ebook street prices went up by 20-30%, the same as when the conspiracy kicked in. And even before Agency Part Deux they were still going up:

http://authorearnings.com/report/may...rnings-report/

In feb 2014 BPH ebook prices averaged $8.39 and jumped to $9.83 by May 2015.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

On the contrary.
With the switch to agency BPH ebook street prices went up by 20-30%, the same as when the conspiracy kicked in. And even before Agency Part Deux they were still going up:

http://authorearnings.com/report/may...rnings-report/

Can't say I've noticed any particular change either way. Perhaps it mainly affected bestsellers, which I rarely buy?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

On the contrary.
With the switch to agency BPH ebook street prices went up by 20-30%, the same as when the conspiracy kicked in. And even before Agency Part Deux they were still going up:

http://authorearnings.com/report/may...rnings-report/

Do you have a link for what indie ebook prices have done?
It looks like they are rising by a very small percentage but on average they are not the most expensive.
It seems either Hugh or the Data Guy left out the percentages for small/medium publishers.
In February 2015, they were on average $1.14 higher than the big 5 and only 30 cents cheaper on average in May of last year.
Nevermind on the link. It was there too.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Can't say I've noticed any particular change either way. Perhaps it mainly affected bestsellers, which I rarely buy?

HarryT,
I think some people are trying to make mountains out of ant hills. Sugar ants not fire ants.
It is nothing new or different that new releases and best sellers are almost always priced higher.
The only conspiracy is that the companies are capitalizing on PROFITS, because they know the average consumer will pay their prices.
Oh wait, that isn't a conspiracy. It is smartly running a business.

[soulfuldog]

Generally new ebooks are around £8-12 in the UK. Then, usually below £8 once the paperback is also out, and the price often falls to below £5 eventually. The price of ebooks does appear to be a bit less elastic in the US than it is in the UK.

Not including those books reduced to £1.99 or less, this is a fairly random selection, showing UK Kindle / UK paperback / US Kindle price:

A Little Life £3.66 / £3.85 / $12.99
The Year of the Runaways £3.80 / £4.00 / $13.99
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time £3.99 / £3.85 / $8.57
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy £4.49 / £6.29 / $12.99
Make Me £4.99 / £3.99 / $14.99
The Cuckoo's Calling £4.99 / £5.59 / $9.99
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings £5.99 / £6.29 / $7.99
Where My Heart Used to Beat £6.99 / 7.99 / $12.99
The Girl on the Train £6.99 / £5.59 / $12.99
Slade House £7.99 / £7.99 / $12.99
Even Dogs in the Wild £8.99 / £5.59 / $13.99
The Alchemist £9.60 / £5.84 / $11.99
After You £9.99 / £5.59 / $12.99

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Can't say I've noticed any particular change either way. Perhaps it mainly affected bestsellers, which I rarely buy?

Except for the brief, Amazon $9.99 best-seller period, I haven't noticed much of a change with best-sellers either. Pre-Amazon, new-release ebooks were typically the same as the hardcover price (followed by the thankfully brief windowing experiment). Then we had the $9.99 (for certain best-sellers) period before Agency put the prices right back where they were. A small dip when Agency was "repealed," and then one by one, publishers went back to slightly-less-than-discounted-hardcovers; where we are now.

So except for a few up and down blips, I've been paying about $12-16 for new-release Big5 ebooks almost all along. *shrug*