Answer as to why ebooks cost more than print books (1 publisher)

[neilmarr]

A book's a book, whether it's carved in stone, stamped into a clay tablet, on a scroll, in swanky hadback, in paperback or in ebook form. All that counts for me is content, not means of presentation.

I no longer have a love affair with paper -- in fact, I resent having to use it sometimes -- so I WANT the ebook version of a title, no matter how heavily discounted the treebook edition might be.

If the price is reasonable (say under $12, but I have paid more), I don't really care how that compares to treebook cover price. I'm more concerned about geographical restrictions and DRM that prevent me reading some of the books I'd like.

Cheers. Neil

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by DarkRoast

I am really fuming. I was just looking at Borders and A&R Australian website and noticed that their prices have gone up. I can't believe it. I thought they were ridiculous before. Kobo was only slightly better. I thought I must have imagined it but looking again, I am sure they have increased the prices. Some of the books I was just looking at have now gone up to $16 -$19 and they aren't new releases. I'm at a loss to know what to say and who to say it to, to get some reasonable ebook prices in Australia.

Unfortunately right now you have to change your buying habits. The only thing they'll listen to is the lack of $ coming in. You can't search for specific books or you'll continue to run into the irrational pricing and fume.

Spend 30 minutes in the MobileRead ebooks and download some classics that you've always wanted to read. I bet you'll end up with 40 books.

Sign up for your local library. The selection might not be great and you have to wait but if you mix it in with other books it's not a problem.

Read the author self promotion thread and watch for indie authors in the genres you like. Read reviews and read samples before you buy. When you find an author you like buy their other books.

I had a look at the Kobo and Amazon best seller lists and I'm seeing that they're almost all at the $10 price or cheaper. Kobo's already added a "Cheap Reads" list. I think they're getting the message.

[TallMomof2]

I've always been a bargain hunter and when I bought physical books I would always try to maximize savings by comparing costs at the cheap chain or using coupons at the full price chain. Even now I can almost always find the physical book for less than the electronic counterpart. Publishers must be making significantly more per sale on electronic books since they sell for more.

The one thing that all this price fixing has done for me is to cause me to spend far less on books, period.

[FF2]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

Im almost starting to view ebooks like a 20oz soda compzred to a 2litre. You are paying more for convenience than content.

2 litre soda is .99
20 oz soda is 1.60 but you get less. But you can carry it around easier, its not as bulky and weighs less.

I still don't like it, and think the prices could come down though.

I like your analogy. I think part of the pricing is based purely on the fact that publishers know folks spent $100 to more than $200 on these devices and that they will be willing to pay inflated prices to have content to play on their ereaders. No content - useless pricey device.

Back to your soda analogy - they also know that the backpack. briefcase or purse you carry has a slot for the 20 ounce size and so if you want to make sure of it, pay the higher price for the smaller version.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by FF2

No content - useless pricey device.

Not really. There are other options - public domain, free books, library books. I have hundreds of books on my readers and didn't pay for any of them.

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Not really. There are other options - public domain, free books, library books. I have hundreds of books on my readers and didn't pay for any of them.

That is so often overlooked in discussions of ebook readers. There is an enormous amount of free material available in ebook format that can clearly never be entirely free in paper.

I do buy commercial ebooks, but if I was unable to do so I'm certain I could still live the rest of my life very happily given an ebook reader and an internet connection to download free classics and others.

So many books, so little time!

/JB

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jbjb

So many books, so little time!

/JB

Ain't that the truth.

[Daithi]

Last night I bought a few books from authors I'd never heard of before but that had good ratings (and books less than $6 each). I'll see how this works out. In the past I've tended to read books by the major publishers and generally at $9.99, but with the escalating prices I'm now more willing to try lesser known authors that aren't with a big publisher.

I also bought two of the "The girl with..." books that were both under $6.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by FF2

Dear Professional Contrarian:

You are absolutely right - seller can pick any price they want. Their goods, their decision. And the seller can equally decide that the price is unfair and unrelated to the value of the product. And more so, can bad mouth the seller if they want for any principle they want include three cents is too much.

Except that the principle doesn't seem to be that the "value" of the book is unrelated to the cost, but that the producer is not passing along his cost savings. I.e., if a pbook costs $6 and an e-book $8, the ebook won't be bought on principle; if a pbook costs $10 and the e-book $8, the ebook will be bought. This has nothing to do with the "value" of the e-book; it just has to do with the publisher's perceived profit. (And it would be different if the purchasers just bought the cheaper e-book, too. But that's mostly not happening either: people are saying that they don't want to pay more for an e-book than a paper book, but they also don't want the paper book).

Obviously ebook prices have almost nothing to do with supply and demand.

E-book prices have as much to do with supply and demand as pbook prices do, and as the price of almost everything else in the market does. If you lower the price, demand goes up; if you raise it, demand goes down. The key for a producer is to find the point on the demand curve where your profit is maximized; the key for consumers is to have competition, so that the prices are driven to a point where profit is not maximized.

There are very few things in modern society that are actually constrained by supply - millions of people wanted Harry Potter books, but they never ran out.

It is not like a unique coffee table, limited edition printing or even an early printing of the hardback.
It is bits and bytes that can be reproduced (supplied) over and over with almost not additional cost (obviously, there is some, if almost nil).

No, it is almost exactly like this. The physical cost of reproducing (delivering, storing, etc.) a hardback book is only $2-$3, yet hardbacks cost much more than that. This is because the major cost of all books are the upfront costs of paying the author and paying the other people involved in producing the content of the book. You can't ignore this cost, for either e-books or paper books...they are spread across all books sales (and the author's cut, in particular, is a cut from each sale).

I am pretty sure the rules will change as we move more and more into ebooks and people's valuation of same.

Maybe...but this hasn't happened with other products.

[LaurieGator]

I remember back to the good old days BEFORE the Agency Model :-)

I remember the struggle that happened with the publishers and Amazon when they were trying to see which side would win out. At first I didn't think all that much about it but as the days went on I realized that there are times when I will pay more for a book that I really want and there are times where I can wait for the book to fall in price.

For the most part if the book is by an author unknown to me, I wait for the price to fall at or below paperback price. If the author is known and it is one of the series I am reading then I may pay a little more. The times when I will usually spend over $10 for an e-book is for a non-fiction book. Many of my non-fiction purchases have a lot of research put into them and I have no problem paying more for that work.

That was pretty much the same strategy that I had with DTBs also. Usually the non-fiction books don't fall in price but the fiction books will fall in price depending on the amount of time it has been on the market. The bargain table usually has some decent deals that will entice me to try a new author.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

No, it isn't.

Countless companies figure out how to reduce their costs, and use the savings to increase their profit margins rather than reduce the price. This is downright common-place behavior -- especially during a recession.

So what, exactly, is the "principle" upon which you are standing? Does no one have the right to maximize profits from a cost savings? Are companies that are not monopolies, and produce goods that are not critical to human survival, obligated to stay within a specific profit margin? If so, what's the magic number -- is it OK for Harlequin to make a 15% profit from a paper book, but not a 16% profit from an ebook? Does it only apply to books? If they save 3¢ per paper book and don't pass the cost on to the consumers, is that equally wrong? Does this moral standard only apply to digital books?

There also isn't any real reason for price to be fixed to costs. Prices are complicated and based on numerous factors, including demand and what people are willing to pay. They could charge $5 for paper and $50 for the ebook, and it still isn't a moral failing.

Sorry, but I'm not really seeing any genuine moral principles at stake here, let alone consistently applied. Perhaps you should reconsider what's really going on here?

It is my principal - that I don't buy things where the price does not relate to the benefit to me. I don't really own an ebook - I used to exhange Harlequin romances with my friends by the box full. But I don't share ebooks, even though I liberate them from DRM. So to me, while I prefer to read an ebook, it offers fewer benefits to me. If it were a lot more expensive to produce, I might decide to pay the additional money for the convenience. But since I know they cost far less to produce, I refuse to pay more.

I understand economics - Harlequin can charge whatever they like. But I don't have to buy from them. And I won't, if the ebook is more expensive than the pbook. I don't really care about the cost, just that it is less than the pbook. Under the Dome is a good example. That book was windowed. I got a copy from the Darknet. When Amazon, Target and WalMart got into a price war on the hardcover, it eventually showed up on the ebook. I believe I finally paid $7 for the ebook.

[OtterBooks]

So to me, while I prefer to read an ebook, it offers fewer benefits to me.

Preferring to read it is usually considered a pretty major benefit when it comes to books. At least it is for me.

[TFWpublisher]

Well I'm a publisher, and I can tell you there's absolutely no reason why any eBook should cost more than the paperback version.

The costs that are the same for both versions? Cover art, editing, and promotion, and that's where it stops.

The process of producing a properly formatted eBook file from a .doc or .rtf file is straightforward and seldom takes more than an hour or two. Once the eBook is uploaded to our distributors (Amazon.com, Smashwords, Sony, Apple, etc.), we're basically done with it. Oh, and if we spot something in the finished product that we overlooked, or simply want to change, we can do that quickly and easily, at no cost to us.

Compare this to the production of paperbacks (which we also produce). It takes far longer to format a paper title, and once it's off the press, you'll tear your hair out if you spot a mistake or something you simply want to change.

Just because eBooks are easier to produce than paperbacks doesn't mean you can just throw them out there on the market and rake in the cash. Far from it. The author and publisher have to work together to get as much exposure for the title as possible. There's a LOT of competition, and that's a wild understatement.

The Fiction Works was one of the pioneers in the eBook biz (I started the company about 12 years ago). Am I thrilled with what's happening now? You bet I am! The eBook market is set to explode.

Ray Hoy, Publisher
The Fiction Works
http://www.fictionworks.com

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

As Kali Yuga said, Harlequin is not clueless publisher new to ebooks. They are quite established in that area, and have been doing it very well, in my opinion. I've been buying ebooks from them since long before I decided to buy an ereader. Three cents more for a book I don't have to find room for? Worth it, definitely.

Yes, their response was silly. If they had said "converting paper books" instead of "converting text files" I might throw them a point, even if it would still be partially inaccurate. As someone who has converted many text files, I can't cut them any slack on that excuse. But the added value thing - if we were talking about $5, I'd take issue with it, but not for $0.03. Even though I try to stretch my dollars till they break when it comes to books, it's definitely worth at least that much.

I guess it all comes down to where people draw a line on pricing, for me my limit is paying no more for ebook version than the paper version, but that is the limit for me as a matter of principle and not simply costs. If a publisher cannot be satisfied with that level of additional profit (due to the ebook version being cheaper to produce) then I'll vote with my wallet and go buy another book with a less unrealistic approach to pricing.

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by TFWpublisher

Well I'm a publisher, and I can tell you there's absolutely no reason why any eBook should cost more than the paperback version.

The costs that are the same for both versions? Cover art, editing, and promotion, and that's where it stops.

The process of producing a properly formatted eBook file from a .doc or .rtf file is straightforward and seldom takes more than an hour or two. Once the eBook is uploaded to our distributors (Amazon.com, Smashwords, Sony, Apple, etc.), we're basically done with it. Oh, and if we spot something in the finished product that we overlooked, or simply want to change, we can do that quickly and easily, at no cost to us...

Ray Hoy, Publisher
The Fiction Works
http://www.fictionworks.com

Welcome Ray! Thanks for that inside knowledge and your candor!