Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices

[Dimwit]

Originally Posted by sabredog

What is hell does that have to do with the price of a paperback?

Blue Tyson has published some damning reports about how the big publishing companies are ripping off customers here in Australia compared to overseas markets.

You might want to read those on Teleread and here on Mobileread.

You should try Canada! Until a stink was raised so that they removed the prices there's always been two prices on the cover. US/Canada. Canadian pricing is usually $2-3 more than US. Ok, except it's the same damn book! Same production run. Given the relative sizes of the markets, our part of the production run could be taken out of the overs!

That markup is pure profit and built into the product. Major aggro.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by sabredog

What is hell does that have to do with the price of a paperback?

Because cost-of-living is different. If you want to compare goods and services properly between countries, this needs to be considered.

A quick search shows that minimum wage in Aus is $15.51 (USD 15.83). Very good.

In my state it's AU $7.10 (USD 7.25). Less than half of yours.

Everyone involved in publishing that book in Aus is earning higher salaries with free or low-cost health care.

What would you prefer $15.51/hr with free health care and $20 book or
$7.10/hr, no health care and $10 book?

Edit: A person is Aus would have to work 1.29 hours at min wage to pay for that book. In my state they would need to work 1.41 hours. Taxes not figured in.

[Yapyap]

And over here, the average new (or older - we don't get many sales) book costs 15-25 euros, and the minimum wage is 1.73 € an hour / 278 € a month.

I can't really compare paperback prices, though; almost all books are released as hardbacks - the market isn't big enough for paperbacks, and the few paperbacks there are aren't noticeably cheaper than the hardbacks.

I don't know anyone here who could afford to buy books at leisure - it's either libraries or online for anyone with a bit of interest in reading and enough knowledge of English. I'm surprised we still have publishers, really, but most of what's published is biographies of local celebrities and such other local things which Western online shops can't replace.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Dimwit

You should try Canada! Until a stink was raised so that they removed the prices there's always been two prices on the cover. US/Canada. Canadian pricing is usually $2-3 more than US. Ok, except it's the same damn book! Same production run.

Is that not because, historically, the Canadian dollar has been worth less than the US dollar?

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Because cost-of-living is different. If you want to compare goods and services properly between countries, this needs to be considered.

A quick search shows that minimum wage in Aus is $15.51 (USD 15.83). Very good.

In my state it's AU $7.10 (USD 7.25). Less than half of yours.

Everyone involved in publishing that book in Aus is earning higher salaries with free or low-cost health care.

What would you prefer $15.51/hr with free health care and $20 book or
$7.10/hr, no health care and $10 book?

Edit: A person is Aus would have to work 1.29 hours at min wage to pay for that book. In my state they would need to work 1.41 hours. Taxes not figured in.

Read Blue Tyson's articles on Teleread and Mobileread.

A 140% markup is nothing to do with the cost of living.

The health care system is broken here and it is NOT free unless you are considered low income. Even then the wait for an operation could exceed TWO years.

Our dollar is over parity with the US dollar, imports are far cheaper now than before. Prices should have gone down, instead they are artificially ramped up by money grubbing publishing and entertainment industry companies to gouge Australian consumers.

I do not expect you to have the slightest understanding of how angry the Australian consumer currently is. The last report from the Australian Consumer organisation CHOICE was exceptionally damning towards retail and distributors.

Online purchasing is on the rise here and retail does not like it one little bit. Incidently. I can buy books, bluray movies etc from Amazon UK far cheaper than locally.

I refuse to believe that a almost double the price difference in a paperback price is caused by the cost of living. Don't patronise me or other Australians who are justifiably angry with how Publishers treat us beneath contempt with geo restrictions and price gouging policies.

[HarryT]

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A gentle reminder that this is not the place to discuss politics: please take such discussions to the P&R forum.

Please stick to the original topic of this thread.

Thank you.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by Fbone

Because cost-of-living is different. If you want to compare goods and services properly between countries, this needs to be considered.

A quick search shows that minimum wage in Aus is $15.51 (USD 15.83). Very good.

In my state it's AU $7.10 (USD 7.25). Less than half of yours.

Everyone involved in publishing that book in Aus is earning higher salaries with free or low-cost health care.

What would you prefer $15.51/hr with free health care and $20 book or
$7.10/hr, no health care and $10 book?

Edit: A person is Aus would have to work 1.29 hours at min wage to pay for that book. In my state they would need to work 1.41 hours. Taxes not figured in.

But an ebook published in the UK by an UK author and a UK company on an American server sold by an American retailer has exactly zero to do with Australia. So none of that is relevant. You can add in house prices in major metropolitan areas pushing towards half a million dollars, too, if you like.

[hpulley]

It was the same with music CDs, lower manufacturing costs but higher retail prices than cassettes and phonographs, now similar or slightly lower prices for online music. Music stores going (going... gone) away, perhaps bookstores too.

[Blue Tyson]

Yep. In JB HI-FI the other day - actually in Australian - in a Westfield with their ripoff rents - a lot of CDs were $30.00 (and more).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Yep. In JB HI-FI the other day - actually in Australian - in a Westfield with their ripoff rents - a lot of CDs were $30.00 (and more).

Presumably, however, there are people willing to buy at those prices, or else the shop would no longer be in business.

[Blue Tyson]

Well, no, because they sell a lot more than that declining side of their business. There'll be an article from the locals bitching about the further decline in CD sales shortly I'd imagine.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Well, no, because they sell a lot more than that declining side of their business. There'll be an article from the locals bitching about the further decline in CD sales shortly I'd imagine.

You're not alone in that. I buy all my CDs from Amazon, because physical music shops in the UK charge such silly prices.

[sabredog]

I buy my blurays and DVD's from Amazon UK. Often the prices are 60% cheaper.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by sabredog

I buy my blurays and DVD's from Amazon UK. Often the prices are 60% cheaper.

Actually to my surprise I found one yesterday via fishpond - a CD, was 8.82 free shipping. Cheaper than I had seen this one anywhere, even secondhand.

So worth a look there, too.

A NZ company getting a German import of Dutch band via a UK company by mail to Australia. Very entertaining.

[hpulley]

Wouldn't it be great if all ebooks were free or 0.99? For today maybe but who would write more ebooks tomorrow?

Price and cost are separate. The price is what people are willing to pay. Obviously, you can raise your profit margin by reducing your costs or raising prices. Price it too high and sales can drop. Drive costs too low and quality can suffer which can also hurt sales. ebooks and emusic have no or very low per-sale costs but the development costs are pretty much the same whether or not you have a physical manufacturing run.

Consumers expect to have savings in manufacturing passed onto them, so they think ebooks should be cheaper and say publishers are profiting but it shouldn't really change the price they are willing to pay.

Music sellers say CDs are worth more as the sound quality is higher, no tape hiss or record crackles and they don't wear out like LPs or cassettes. ebook pages won't go yellow like my old pulp fiction paperbacks, won't be dog eared and sweat stained while reading so again the argument can be made that you are getting more and thus should pay more. You can change font face anx size on the fly so there is no need to repurchase books in large print sizes as you age. You can search ebooks, access them from multiple readers, etc.

Perhaps most worrying for publishers, anything digital can be copied for free with some effort. That leads some to believe that any price is too high, should be free. After all, books are just words on a page so how expensive can they be to make? ebooks aren't even that, they're just transient on/off pixels on a display, here one moment and then gone with a press or swipe.