Why are e-books so expensive?

[neilmarr]

Not all publishers are greedy. Sometimes (especially with smaller houses) there's little control over the cover price of ebooks when outside retail is involved. Some fair retailers, of course, invite the publisher to set price, and they stick to that, though their affiliates may not and might disregard the publisher's RRP.

For instance, my own publishing house's homesite store has pegged our non-DRM ebooks at a flat two bucks or equivalent for the past five years (that's OK because our paperbacks can cover in-house costs so far -- and we saw ebooks mainly as a promotional tool until fairly recently ... almost a by-product of the main job).

Outside retailers, however, can pretty well price them as they see fit. Many do the same with paperback, incidentally. I've seen our titles offered at frighteningly inflated prices as well as at frighteningly high discount. And sometimes, it's the retailer who insists on DRM and not the publisher ... I would certainly never invite such penalisation of my honest reader.

We've now got so many retail outlets around the world that we must upwardly adjust our ebook price soon to $7.00 so as not to present unfair competition with our own sellers. I'm even wondering whether to shut our own store and leave the sales side of things entirely to outside retail, concentrating on the job at hand, which is to enable our authors, produce the best possible result from their work, and excite the reader.

The market's a bloody shambles right now.

When things level out and the bigger publishers can see how heavily treebook sales are likely to be hit by ebooks, they'll -- hopefully -- be able to more fairly share the cost of presentation of their work between the paper and electronic platforms.

There's a whole chain of folks involved in publishing and how it will change. Some of the more expensive elements will go by the board; print, physical distribution, warehousing, high street retail ... and, of course, the tremendously wasteful sale or return (sale or destroy) principle.

When ebooks take the driving seat, I hope we will see publishers spend their pennies on better editorial work, fair promotion and inceased royalties, delivering the product direct from publisher desk to reader, and that cutting out the expensive and non-creative middle men will produce a fair price for the words you want to read.

You may say that I'm a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.

Cheers. Neil

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, it did. The price of CDs today is way, way lower, in real terms, than it was 20 years ago. In the UK, at least, CDs typically cost about 30% of the price that they did then, taking inflation into account; ie, they've fallen in price by about a factor of 3.

Really? What did they cost 1990? I think it was around £10. Then http://www.whatsthecost.com/cpi.aspx says that the price today should be £16 which seems to be around the current price. So no change at all.

[HarryT]

CDs first appeared when I was a student - around 1980 or 81. At that time, if memory serves me correctly, they typically cost about £15, which would be well over £30 in "today's money". Now, most "chart" CDs seem to cost well under £10.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

CDs first appeared when I was a student - around 1980 or 81. At that time, if memory serves me correctly, they typically cost about £15, which would be well over £30 in "today's money". Now, most "chart" CDs seem to cost well under £10.

I think the current drop in price is caused by webshops that offer downloads. Why would I buy a whole CD while I only want half the songs if I can buy those songs and burn them on my own CD for less money?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

CDs first appeared when I was a student - around 1980 or 81. At that time, if memory serves me correctly, they typically cost about £15, which would be well over £30 in "today's money". Now, most "chart" CDs seem to cost well under £10.

20 years ago is 1990. Chart CD is not the normal price level.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

20 years ago is 1990. Chart CD is not the normal price level.

But they do represent the most popular CD sales, and they have unquestionably fallen in price.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

But they do represent the most popular CD sales, and they have unquestionably fallen in price.

Yes, from £16 to £10 then. Not a factor 3.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

If they treat it like a sale, it's a sale, regardless of what they call it. They can call it a "license," but if there's no return date/conditions, it's a sale. (I expect you know this, but other people might not.)

Licenses are limited-time contracts, either for a set period of time, or until a set condition occurs. ("When the Boston store opens, the trucks must be returned to us" or "you may use our software until our website starts taking subscriptions, at which point you'll need a reg code to continue.")

If there's no return condition, it's a sale, not a license. And that means the purchaser is free to resell it or give it away; sales can't include restrictions on use or ownership transfers.

Don't overlook the fact that they might be selling the license. And a license doesn't need a 'return' condition unless you consider "when the license ends you must delete the file" to be a 'return'. (And I'm not sure they even insist on you deleting it-with other software they typical requirement is that you 'stop using' it.)

You're right that selling the license gives you the right to transfer/resell it yourself, but if one of the terms that ends the license is the transfer of it, then who's going to buy it from you?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by calvin-c

Don't overlook the fact that they might be selling the license. And a license doesn't need a 'return' condition unless you consider "when the license ends you must delete the file" to be a 'return'. (And I'm not sure they even insist on you deleting it-with other software they typical requirement is that you 'stop using' it.)

License ends = file deleted/no longer used, is what library ebooks have. Those are licensed, not sold or given away.

Books purchased from Fictionwise, Amazon, BoB and so on contain no expectation that the buyer will stop using the file at some point in the future. You don't buy a temporary right to use the file; you buy permanent access, including the right to put it on your own machines--which legally qualifies it as a "purchase" rather than a "licensed use."

Their maintenance of an online archive/library of your purchases doesn't change the nature of the sale itself. You don't buy "access to your fictionwise library + permission to download;" the lack of requirement to stop using the ebooks means you bought them.

To change that, they'd have to put a note in their sales descriptions that said they have the right to remove your access to the books under [condition], and that you are expected to delete all copies at that point.

You're right that selling the license gives you the right to transfer/resell it yourself, but if one of the terms that ends the license is the transfer of it, then who's going to buy it from you?

I have no idea what you mean by this. A "license" doesn't necessarily include the right to transfer the contents; a "purchase" does. Most ebook stores offer purchases, not licenses, regardless of what their FAQ says.