Would you buy the print or the ebook for the same price?

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by l_macd

I guess latepaul does have a point with those features, but possibly it just depends on your point of view? If you want to argue that ebooks have value that physical books don't, you can use those features to illustrate it. I tend to agree with your POV samhy, it's the device that gives you those plus points, not the actual ebook.

It's the device plus the ebook - you need both to do the actual reading. And it's the ebook you're making a decision about (shall I buy it? is it too expensive?). Regardless of how you make use of it (i.e. via a device you already paid for) the ebook has a feature the pbook doesn't and that's worth something to some people. (If it wasn't ereaders wouldn't exist or they'd be an technological curio).

What you're really saying is that the pbook's unique features - lend-ability etc - are worth more to you than the ebook's ones.

[susan_cassidy]

I can no longer read the tiny print in pbooks, so I always buy the ebook, but I don't normally pay over 9.99 for them. If it is priced higher, I put it on my ereadereq.com list and wait for the price to drop. I've made, I think, 2 exceptions, for books I really wanted to read "right now". But I buy a 2 or 3 dozen ebooks per month. I also re-read other ebooks that I already own.

[discopig]

Considering an ebook doesn't take as much materials to produce as real books (no paper, printing, physical distribution, etc), I think it would be fair to sell them at a slightly lower price than real books.

$10 is about the most I'd pay for an ebook, but sometimes I'll grab a real book for $15 or $20

[AnemicOak]

I don't often spend more than $8 for ANY fiction books, be it p or e, but will spend more when it's a book I really want to read NOW and not wait for a price drop. I prefer to not pay more for an ebook than what it's paper counterpart is going for. Of course I rarely bought fiction hardcovers in my pre-ebook days either (maybe 7-8 a year), the price keeps going up while the quality of the paper and binding has gone down. I don't think the idea that the digital version should cost about half is realistic in any way, except maybe when we're talking a p version that is POD.

Don't care that I can't sell an ebook, but never sold pbooks, other than some specific reference type works, either. The used stores around here have piles of fiction and pay next to nothing, not worth the hassle and eBay is a PITA. The thrift shops often have piles of stuff already and don't want more so many donations just get dumped in their recycling dumpster. I loan my ebooks all the time by putting them on one of my older readers and loaning the device as well as the book(s).

I love the space saving (my entire house is under 700 sq. ft.) and convenience of eBooks.

[BeccaPrice]

There's no after-market for romance or romantic suspense, at least in my town (the one USB that I know of won't take it), so I can't re-sell my paper books. I've got some non-fiction paper books that I recently picked up that I can't read because the font is too small; I suppose I could try to re-sell those.

I have no logical reason why I resent paying more for eformat than I do for paper, but I do - it just seems so insubstantial, so transient that even the convenience of being able to fix the font size isn't enough to get me to pay more than $7 or $8 - $10 for a few, very rare books that I have to read Right Now, but I did that maybe once so far this year, and maybe twice last year.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by latepaul

But you can search in it, it's smaller, lighter, can be synced across multiple devices. Why should I pay more for something that doesn't have those features?

So you're right that it's not worth the same but the differences go in both directions and which is worth more depends on which features you value more.

I beg to differ slightly here. An ebook is just a digital file. It is the ereader device itself that provides for the syncing across devices, that is generally smaller and lighter than a physical book. So that being the case, I don't get that when I buy the ebook. If a reader doesn't support those features, then I don't have it. As such, I don't add that to a feature of an ebook.

I see now that this has been addressed further up the thread

[carld]

Except under exceptional circumstances I won't pay the same for an ebook as a paper book, and I'll never pay more. If I'm making that decision I'll also send a letter to the publisher explaining why I'm not buying their book. I've only sent a couple, to likely no effect.

[sakura-panda]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I have absolutely no interest in comparing the ebook price (if it's available as an ebook) to the price of the same book in a medium I'm not buying. In fact, if the ebook exists, I rarely even know what the price of the print version is. My desire to read it is the sole determining factor.

Exactly this. I don't buy ebooks because they are cheaper than printed books, I buy ebooks because they are my format of choice. I wouldn't even know if the printed copy was the same price because I'm not comparing prices.

That said, it's different when it comes to my kids' ebooks, since they are not committed to one format over another. All those people that complain about the cost of ebooks should look at 100 page chapter books that cost $4-6 each! I guess I do draw the line somewhere; at that price, I'll buy a bundle of 28 paperback books for $50 rather than spend $5 on one ebook that is just over 100 pages.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

It seems we're actually agreeing (accept for the part about it being a knee-jerk reaction--which I still contend it is). The "war" I was referring to is the one being fought by the vocal few who believe that ebooks should be vastly cheaper than their print counterparts. Like half-price. Ain't gonna happen.

Is happening, or at least close to that, with Tor eBooks in the UK.
Peter Hamilton's SciFi trade paperbacks sell with a list of £8.99-£9.99, the eBooks are selling at £3.99.
Neal Asher's have a print list of £7.99, eBooks sell at £3.95.
And I've bought several of them, which I wouldn't have done if they were priced at £6.99.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The ebook-buying public (in general) has clearly indicated that they place very little value in the ability to loan, resell, or donate the works of fiction that they consume electronically.

I for one, would not even think to *buy* a certain book, when one of the considerations would be the ability to resell it. In that case, I would just go loan it at the library.

[teija]

I was just in the local bookstore yesterday thinking about this same topic. I am of the belief that eBooks should NOT cost as much as the physical book, mainly because they require no materials, and their distribution cost is MUCH cheaper. It can't possibly cost over 50% of the cost of a book to produce an eBook!

But yes, I did then think about the portability and ease-of-reading factor (I HATE having to try and hold a fat book open with two hands and STILL have difficulty reading in the middle towards the spine).

For photo-heavy books and cookbooks I agree - I definitely want the physical copy. I tried once to use a recipe on my iDevice when baking, but it was not worth the mess!

And for the record: I have seldom bought a book at cover price, if ever. I am also a fan of the local charity/thrift stores and get most of my cookbooks, etc from there. For the rest, I often wait until they come on sale on Amazon.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by teija

I was just in the local bookstore yesterday thinking about this same topic. I am of the belief that eBooks should NOT cost as much as the physical book, mainly because they require no materials, and their distribution cost is MUCH cheaper. It can't possibly cost over 50% of the cost of a book to produce an eBook!

Apart from the lower manufacturing cost, the other big difference is the retailer's cut. For a paper book, retailers general get 45% to 55% of the retail price. For electronic books retailers generally get at most 30% of the retail price.

That in itself should make an ebook of a $10 paper book be no more than $7.15

($10 = $5 to retailer, $5 to publisher. $7.15 = $2.15 to retailer, $5 to publisher.)

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Is happening, or at least close to that, with Tor eBooks in the UK.
Peter Hamilton's SciFi trade paperbacks sell with a list of £8.99-£9.99, the eBooks are selling at £3.99.
Neal Asher's have a print list of £7.99, eBooks sell at £3.95.
And I've bought several of them, which I wouldn't have done if they were priced at £6.99.

Just curious, are those prices the list price or are they because of a retailers ability to discount? Most of the Hamilton stuff I see on the PanMacmillan site seems to have the list as paper or £1 less than paper.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Apart from the lower manufacturing cost, the other big difference is the retailer's cut. For a paper book, retailers general get 45% to 55% of the retail price. For electronic books retailers generally get at most 30% of the retail price.

That in itself should make an ebook of a $10 paper book be no more than $7.15

($10 = $5 to retailer, $5 to publisher. $7.15 = $2.15 to retailer, $5 to publisher.)

Do we know that a 30% cut is still that case? It became the case with Agency pricing, but with Agency ending contacts are being redone and I don't think it ever became the case for non-agency stuff.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Just curious, are those prices the list price or are they because of a retailers ability to discount? Most of the Hamilton stuff I see on the PanMacmillan site seems to have the list as paper or £1 less than paper.

I'm not sure you can tell, Amazon compare digital prices to print list, not digital list. The uniformity of pricing at £3.99 makes it look more like a deliberate plan though.

Looking at the PacMacmillan site, all I can say is wow, their business plan is clearly to sell to people who know nothing about eBooks and don't know to look anywhere else. When they are selling the same eBook at £8.99 than Amazon are selling at £3.99, it just makes you think they don't actually want to sell them.

[Just done a quick spot check of the PanMacmillan store for Tor books, and for each one I checked, Amazon will sell you the eBook for less than half the price that PM will sell you the pBook.]

[david_e]

I don't compare prices and I no longer buy hardback or paperback books. If they haven't released it in ePub, I don't need it.