Books vs eBooks - please explain

[khalleron]

[QUOTE=kindlekitten;654988]is that including adjustments for exchange rates?
QUOTE]

I was there when the US$ was really weak (of course!) so .97AU$=1US$

Not enough of a difference to matter.

But in the US, a 12oz Coke from a machine runs 60 - 75 cents most places, and I can get candy bars for 59 cents a lot of places. Can't blame that on the exchange rate.

[kindlekitten]

it's hard to tell... I lived in Germany for 8 years; 2 stints of 4 years. the first time the dollar was pretty high and there were no problems, the second time the dollar started high, went to the moon and then tanked. it can make a HUGE difference!

[sianon]

Originally Posted by smerrall

Unfortunately this ripoff on book prices is well known. It got to the point of an association of book sellers lobbying federal government to allow parallel importation of books. This was supported by the Productivity Commission, most economists and retailers. The proposition was defeated yesterday. The publishers went crazy and lobbied everybody who'd listen. They got the unions and Peter Garrett on side and the rolled caucus. There was a lot of animosity about it.
The prize for most stupid comment went to the Competition Minister who said that consumers wouldn't be hurt because of online book sales and e-books. How the retailers will survive the 75% discounts we get online is beyond me.
Parallel importation would also have allowed Amazon et. al. to sell ebooks to us directly as well. Now it's a forlorn hope.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/poli...-1225796416507
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/biz...1111-ia0a.html

I hadn't caught up with the information that this issue had finally been decided, thanks for the update. It really is disappointing that the government has backed down on this.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

One of the fundamental rules of marketing in a business which both sells directly and via a distribution chain is that, unless you're prepared to have your distribution chain stop selling your product, you don't undercut them.

..... If they undercut them drastically then they lose the distribution chain-and also their sales & advertising.....

Distribution chains don't exist because they're convenient, they exist because they're profitable for the publishers. Until that changes (about the time ebooks become universal? or when H*** freezes over? I'm not optimistic here-best I hope for is that ebooks will become 'normal', don't expect they'll ever become universal)........

Excellent point as well Calvin

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

One of the fundamental rules of marketing in a business which both sells directly and via a distribution chain is that, unless you're prepared to have your distribution chain stop selling your product, you don't undercut them.

Absolutely. So publishers don't tend to sell paper books directly, and certainly not at any discount to the cover price.

But ebooks != pbooks.

Baen has been selling ebooks at /lots/ below the pbook price for the past 10 years, and it doesn't seem to have hurt their pbook distribution through the supply chain.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

The main reason for the cost of ebooks be "high" is that the actual printing and distribution of a physical book is actually a minor part of the retail cost.

There are also more costs than just printing/distribution which are eliminated.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

There are also more costs than just printing/distribution which are eliminated.

Rule of thumb for estimating costs of a book.

45-55% of cover price - bookstore
50% of remainder - distribution chain before bookstore
50% of remainder of pre-distribution-chain - printing costs
5-20% (Okay, for *most* authors, 20% is *high*) of that amount - royalties
Remainder pays for copy-editing, promotion, managment, *profits to the publisher*, etc.

Given that the distribution-chain and printing costs are pretty much gone, that leaves the rest for the bookstore, publisher and author. Guess who gets little or no boost in income from the reduced cost of ebooks as compared to dead-tree? That's right, the author.

Derek

[Katti's Cat]

Followed the links posted by smerall and kepts digging into the subject: it's the government here in Australia, partly responsible for the high costs (for books and eBooks). Thank you again for that.

The high cost in general in Australia (relatively - you should try Europe) are usually to do with shipping cost - we don't produce much here.

Thanks for the redirection to you bookshop. Dublin watch out, I'm on my way. Stock the shelves

And yes, Publishers and most Booksellers are idiots. I'd be happy to pay the authors their royalties but no way are the publishers and booksellers getting that kind of money for sending me a file.

[kindlekitten]

it's amazing that a government would go out of their way to make reading that much more difficult for their population to obtain than need be

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Rule of thumb for estimating costs of a book.

45-55% of cover price - bookstore
50% of remainder - distribution chain before bookstore
50% of remainder of pre-distribution-chain - printing costs
5-20% (Okay, for *most* authors, 20% is *high*) of that amount - royalties
Remainder pays for copy-editing, promotion, managment, *profits to the publisher*, etc.
...

Derek

and tell me what is wrong with this picture when EVERYTHING is hinged on the author's work?

Let's look at it a different way say a book sales for $20 that means the author might as much as $4.00 or more likely $1 measly buck. That means the author could sell directly to the public and double his money at $2. Sounds like a better deal to me for both the author and consumer.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Let's look at it a different way say a book sales for $20 that means the author might as much as $4.00 or more likely $1 measly buck. That means the author could sell directly to the public and double his money at $2. Sounds like a better deal to me for both the author and consumer.

That's why a lot of the content industry (especially the RIAA) does everything they can to shutdown and/or put the independents out of business. Personally, I think their biggest fear isn't piracy, but that filesharing will become a legitimate competitor.

It's not quite that simple with Publishing though. There are additional services tied up under the Publisher umbrella besides promotion/distribution. For example, editing will still be a necessary service, regardless of whether authors figure out that they can sell directly.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by khalleron

When I was in Australia a couple of years ago, I was shocked at the pbook prices. $16.99 for a paperback SF book? My word.

Of course, I was shocked by the price of most things there. $2 for a can of Coke? $1.85 for a candy bar?

We Americans don't appreciate how good we have it most of the time, really.

Paperback now $20+ actually, you maybe visited when US paperbacks were still 6.99?

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

it's amazing that a government would go out of their way to make reading that much more difficult for their population to obtain than need be

US and UK protection of their markets also result in higher prices than if open, but would be pretty small differences compared to Australia.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by kennyc

and tell me what is wrong with this picture when EVERYTHING is hinged on the author's work?

Let's look at it a different way say a book sales for $20 that means the author might as much as $4.00 or more likely $1 measly buck. That means the author could sell directly to the public and double his money at $2. Sounds like a better deal to me for both the author and consumer.

Part of the problem is that people tend to 'feel' that books purchased from a publisher are less-likely to be poorly written. And it doesn't help that most people don't know where to find independently released ebooks. Heck. *I* don't know if there's a clearinghouse website that details new releases of indie-published stories. Might be nice to get one running if there isn't. Sort of a "you set up your marketing site for *your* ebooks and then we'll provide blurb-space and links from *our* site to your storefront" deal.

Derek

[sassanik]

Does using Paypal still work as a word around for some of the location restrictions?


Amy