DOJ suing Apple over ebooks.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by kacir

let's see ...
A commercially published, highly acclaimed book, for which a big-name author got a Pulitzer price,
- with absolutely no punctuation,
- with missing quotes,
- with missing apostrophes,
- with dull, repetitive dialogues between the two sole protagonists of the book,
- with awkward, grammatically incorrect, confusing sentences ...

I still get nightmares from having to read the darn thing in english 205. I kept trying to tell the prof that surely the english language couldn't stretch *that* far and still be english.

[HarryT]

What are you referring to?

[plib]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This forum, however, illustrates that there's a sizeable proportion of books buyers for whom price is not particularly a consideration. And if the people who are actually buying books are OK with the prices, the publisher probably has little to worry about. People who are not buying books don't really enter into the picture.

This is a great board Harry. I'm glad I found it. But its total membership probably amounts to a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the book buying public. I don't want to generalize from the particular either but comparing the conversation on here with conversations in the real world I'd say that, unsurprisingly, there is a much higher percentage of bibliophiles on here than the rest of the population, and even on here that opinion is not monolithic.

There are many members here who have stated that price is a consideration. How do you think the millions who just buy a paperback at the airport or browse to Amazon to get a book feel? They still buy books, but price is a consideration. And people who don't buy books are the reason all those returns go back to the publishers, so they do enter into the picture I'm afraid.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What are you referring to?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnegans_Wake

[HarryT]

Thanks. I struggle with most of Joyce's work. He's not the most "accessible" of authors.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by plib

This is a great board Harry. I'm glad I found it. But its total membership probably amounts to a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the book buying public. I don't want to generalize from the particular either but comparing the conversation on here with conversations in the real world I'd say that, unsurprisingly, there is a much higher percentage of bibliophiles on here than the rest of the population, and even on here that opinion is not monolithic.

There are many members here who have stated that price is a consideration. How do you think the millions who just buy a paperback at the airport or browse to Amazon to get a book feel? They still buy books, but price is a consideration. And people who don't buy books are the reason all those returns go back to the publishers, so they do enter into the picture I'm afraid.

Oh, I entirely agree with everything you say. I just meant that I, for example, probably buy about 4 eBooks in an average week. A publisher is probably going to care more about keeping me - an active and regular customer - happy, than he is about someone who isn't buying his books. I'm the one who's generating his revenue, not the non-buyer.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by plib

So would the SEC. Because according to Amazon's latest 10-K they have both made a profit and generated positive cash flow for the last five years.

That 10-K doesn't say anything about whether Amazon sells ebooks profitably.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Thanks. I struggle with most of Joyce's work. He's not the most "accessible" of authors.

Understatement of the millenium.

I sure hope Kacir was talking about him.
I'd hate to think there's more like that around.

[plib]

Originally Posted by stonetools

That 10-K doesn't say anything about whether Amazon sells ebooks profitably.

Nor did the original post in question. It was a blanket statement.

[plib]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Oh, I entirely agree with everything you say. I just meant that I, for example, probably buy about 4 eBooks in an average week. A publisher is probably going to care more about keeping me - an active and regular customer - happy, than he is about someone who isn't buying his books. I'm the one who's generating his revenue, not the non-buyer.

Well, that's one way of looking at it, and for your sake I hope you're right. However the other way of looking at it is that you're a given, you'll buy pretty much no matter what. It's the guy who isn't buying the book who is limiting the publisher's income. So out will come the spreadsheet doing a cost/benefit breakeven analysis on cutting costs and dropping prices in return for increased volume, and getting that guy to open his wallet.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by plib

Well, that's one way of looking at it, and for your sake I hope you're right. However the other way of looking at it is that you're a given, you'll buy pretty much no matter what. It's the guy who isn't buying the book who is limiting the publisher's income. So out will come the spreadsheet doing a cost/benefit breakeven analysis on cutting costs and dropping prices in return for increased volume, and getting that guy to open his wallet.

Really? From what I have obsverved the way to get the people that usually do not buy and READ books is to have a book that everybody reads and talk about. And the non buying persons probably buy 1 or 2 of these books per year and is not price sensitive at all. You have to read a lot more books per year to be price sensitive.

[plib]

Originally Posted by tompe

Really? From what I have obsverved the way to get the people that usually do not buy and READ books is to have a book that everybody reads and talk about. And the non buying persons probably buy 1 or 2 of these books per year and is not price sensitive at all. You have to read a lot more books per year to be price sensitive.

Well, on that basis I'd say the best way to inveigle people who usually do not buy books into buying a book is to have HBO make a mini-series of it.

However if you want to turn a 1 or 2 a year buyer into a 1 or 2 a month buyer then making the price more attractive will definitely have an effect. The extent of that effect versus the margin tradeoff is what the spreadsheets and market research are for.

That said I will agree, sorrowfully, that there is a large part of the population to whom the idea of reading a book, at any price, is as foreign as the concept of learning Sanskrit.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by plib

Well, that's one way of looking at it, and for your sake I hope you're right. However the other way of looking at it is that you're a given, you'll buy pretty much no matter what. It's the guy who isn't buying the book who is limiting the publisher's income. So out will come the spreadsheet doing a cost/benefit breakeven analysis on cutting costs and dropping prices in return for increased volume, and getting that guy to open his wallet.

I think the likelihood is that the BPHs will simply cut back on expenses. Its a lot easier to save money by simplying cutting staff and by reducing advances to authors. Also you don't develop new authors ( risky and expensive) and you don't greenlight expensive non-fiction projects (same).
I note that every single author you cited in an earlier post was an author of genre dfiction. That alone is a telling indicator of what a non-BPH world would look like.

[plib]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I think the likelihood is that the BPHs will simply cut back on expenses. Its a lot easier to save money by simplying cutting staff and by reducing advances to authors. Also you don't develop new authors ( risky and expensive) and you don't greenlight expensive non-fiction projects (same).

That's a possibility of course, although I think it's one which makes the death spiral more certain if perhaps a little slower.

I note that every single author you cited in an earlier post was an author of genre dfiction. That alone is a telling indicator of what a non-BPH world would look like.

That was mostly a listing from a quick hit on Amazon's best seller page for last year. It's what the BPH world looks like.

[John F]

Originally Posted by stonetools

I think the likelihood is that the BPHs will simply cut back on expenses. ...

Sounds good to me. They should be cutting unnecessary expenses to keep costs down.

... Its a lot easier to save money by simplying cutting staff and by reducing advances to authors. ...

Again, sounds good. Cut the fat. And if advances are so risky, be a little smarter about them.

... Also you don't develop new authors ( risky and expensive)...

That's fine. If they don't want to develop new authors, the good ones will "develop" some other way.

... and you don't greenlight expensive non-fiction projects (same).

Excellent! I don't want pay for what I don't get. When I go to McDonald's, I don't want to pay more so someone else can eat steak.