Kobo exec advocates higher prices for AU, NZ

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by darryl

Whist I agree with you about Indies, I think the same applies to tradpubs, at least in relation to ebooks.

No question that tradpubs should be pricing to support and build up author brands. But they don't. They price as if each author is an established and dominant brand for their genre/category (a Roberts or a King) with an eye to maximizing launch window revenue. They do not seem to care overmuch about the fate of midlisters and new authors and have only now begun to talk about possibly some day using lower introductory pricing for new authors, mostly because of external criticism.

Given that they seem satisfied with the status quo they themselves created I wouldn't expect change and, again, going back to the context of the speech, the Kobo Writing Life chief is urging Indies to join the cartel pricing structure instead of undercutting it.

The issue I see isn't one of regional pricing disparities in general but of singling out two specific markets, out of the dozens Kobo serves, to *publicly* suggest discriminatory pricing. Not because of currency issues or of higher costs of doing business in the region, but rather suggesting that Indies follow the example of the local publishing cartel instead of pricing low for competitive advantage.

I won't even try to speculate on their reasoning but I do wonder why he didn't suggest higher prices elsewhere, say the european regions or the US or UK. Just AU and NZ.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Yes you are right. So £9.99 inc. 20% VAT is about £8.33 excl. VAT.

But £8.33 is still more than £6.99 so the same point applies: Amazon has a lower price cap in the US than in the UK, favouring US customers over UK customers.

Amazon's price bounds at the low end are related (at least in part) to their cost of doing business: It costs them the same to list and deliver a $0.99 title as a $10 title but the revenue generated is lower. So it isn't exactly shocking that they would want to at least slightly discourage rock-bottom pricing. They also discourage perma-free as much as competitive pressures let them.

(It could be that the cost of running Kindle UK is a certain percent higher than the US operation and they are baking that into the recommended pricing structure.)

They also, subtly, encourage higher Indie pricing through their price suggestion tool which reportedly suggests slightly higher prices about two thirds of the time and lower prices about a third, typically depending on genre or category. But they do that globally and quietly, on a title by title basis.

What Amazon doesn't do is publicly tell publishers to single out specific markets for price discrimination.

Not quite the same thing.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

But £8.33 is still more than £6.99 so the same point applies: Amazon has a lower price cap in the US than in the UK, favouring US customers over UK customers

Which is why I asked if there were other taxes, fees, etc. as part of the cost of doing business in the UK vs the US that could be eating up some/all of that difference.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Which is why I asked if there were other taxes, fees, etc. as part of the cost of doing business in the UK vs the US that could be eating up some/all of that difference.

But the price cap is an upper limit, i.e. by setting a higher cap in the UK Amazon is paying a higher rate of royalties to publishers who set their prices higher in the UK than in the US. (i.e. to those publishers who set the UK price above the US cap but below the UK cap.)

If they set the cap in the UK the same as in the US then it would both save Amazon money and remove that incentive for publishers to price higher in the UK than in the US.

[Tarana]

Originally Posted by meeera

Australia isn't a richer market, it's just a traditionally price-gouged market. Australians are waking up to this and geo-shopping as a result.

Very true. The tradition started back in the 1800s. The Rum Rebellion wasn't just about kicking out Bligh but taking back control to those who brought in rum so that they could sell it for as high as they could get.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

From Teleread:
http://www.teleread.com/kobos-mark-l...hing-pitfalls/
Doesn't really need explanation, does it?

What a twerp .... this is why we shop internationally for our ebooks etc!!

And, it's exactly the reason why the Government is in favour of Australians getting around geo-restrictions.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=273651