How do you plan to wait out the coming ebook shakedown?

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For every eBook you want but feel the price is too high, email the publisher and author and let them know why you are not buying that eBook. Tell them so they know. let them know that it's not due to no interest why the eBook isn't selling. let them know that it's due to the price.

Nah. Not my job to tell them why I'm not buying from them; it's their job to convince me it's worth my money. I might, once or twice, feel compelled to contact a publisher or author and let them know I'm interested but not buying for some reason or other, but I'm certainly not going to waste my time writing dozens of emails saying "you failed to understand the current marketplace."

Especially given responses I've seen to individual comments like that in public, which are often along the lines of "King's new book has sold seven zillion copies! Nobody cares if you're not buying it!" Which, shrug, is fine with me. I don't buy King's new book... my husband doesn't read King's new book... my kids don't read King's new book... I don't bring it up at work... I don't buy a copy for my cousin... I don't recommend it on my blog... I don't suggest it to the Friday dinner-at-a-restaurant group... and so on.

If publishers can't figure out how to catch the interest of serious bibliophiles, it's not my responsibility to tell them how.

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by foghat

You talk about portability and obsolescence being a concern with ebooks. I disagree. Regarding obsolescence: fact is the drm is easy to remove - talk about whether it is legal or not, I don't care. I bought the book, I can remove the drm and easily sleep at night. remove the drm and use calibre and now you have a book that can be used on any device can be 'lent' to anyone for any length of time.

If you want to go to extremes and say, what if a drm scheme gets developed that cannot be cracked, what if calibre goes away and there is no replacement, what if amazon goes out of business and/or my kindle breaks and my kindle drm'd books are useless?

To that I say, what if your house burns down, what if you get robbed, what if you lend the book out and forget to who (has happened to me in the past), what if you spill coffee all over your pbook, what if, what if, what if.
...

The pbacks have a 4-for-3 sale, or a few cents off, and shipped...for CHEAPER than the ebook. Ridiculous.

By buying DRM'd books at greater than or equal to paperback book is telling the publishers that:

They don't need to lower their prices under ebooks. You'll pay a premium for them.

DRM is OK.

I refuse to buy either for that reason. All you can do is speak with your $$. I've reluctantly given in on the DRM a couple of times for a couple of nonfiction history books for class, when the price differential was > 50% (i.e $12 + shipping for the used pback...$5 for the ebook). But I felt bad doing it. I try not to buy any DRM'd content for higher than the price of a rental or the same property used. That includes books, video games, etc. For books, that's like $2 or so for fiction most of the time, for XBLA games $8 tops, for DRM'd PC games (like via Steam) it's under $10.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

They don't need to lower their prices under ebooks. You'll pay a premium for them.

They are worth a premium - they occupy no storage space. That certainly makes them more valuable than paper books to me. We are fortunate, however, in that the overwhelming majority of eBooks are significantly cheaper than their paper equivalents - the best of both worlds.

[Steven Lake]

The big houses don't want to lower prices for ebooks because they realize how much of a killing they can make, and they're bloody well going to try and squeeze every dime they can out of the customer while they have the chance. They know that prices will collapse in the next couple of years, so they're hoping to head that off with the higher priced books claiming that they offer a "higher value" to the end user. Yeah, right. That idea is really, really quickly losing ground in the digital age and being replaced by "fair" pricing.

It's the reason why you're seeing some books dropping as long as $4.99 on books that used to be 3-5 times that much in paperback. The only ebooks I expect to be above the $4.99 mark in 5 years will be text books and technical manuals, and only because of the huge amount of work that goes into making them. Yes, textbooks really do cost a lot of money to make. Probably nowhere near what they charge, but it does cost a lot. So they will probably be the only ones that will remain above the $5 mark.

And given the general cost of construction for an ebook only title (a few hundred bucks at most), $4.99 will rake in a LOT of money for the big houses. <sarcasm> Of course, once you subtract lawyer, marketing, screw the author till they bleed, fat guy in a suit, clueless execs, and other "in house" fees, the author will be lucky to see enough money from their book to buy a stale slice of bread.</sarcasm> Yes, I don't like the big houses. I think they're heartless, book making behemoths who don't give a lick about anybody but themselves (especially customers and authors). Of course, if one of them can show me differently, I'll change my mind.

But on a different note, the shakeup may be good in the fact that, given the increasing number of small house presses out there, the big houses might actually get smacked down to the point where there are no more "big houses" anymore, and all the publishing houses will be small press, with everyone fighting equally for their slice of the digital pie.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

{snip}.....

But on a different note, the shakeup may be good in the fact that, given the increasing number of small house presses out there, the big houses might actually get smacked down to the point where there are no more "big houses" anymore, and all the publishing houses will be small press, with everyone fighting equally for their slice of the digital pie.

You had to mention PIE...it's quarter past 5AM here and I haven't slept but a couple hours and already had been wondering how long it's been since I was able to eat a piece of my own pecan pies (celiac) and you go and mention PIE....that is just wrong!!

And oh, yeah, super post!!

[foghat]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

The pbacks have a 4-for-3 sale, or a few cents off, and shipped...for CHEAPER than the ebook. Ridiculous.

By buying DRM'd books at greater than or equal to paperback book is telling the publishers that:

They don't need to lower their prices under ebooks. You'll pay a premium for them.

DRM is OK.

I refuse to buy either for that reason. All you can do is speak with your $$. I've reluctantly given in on the DRM a couple of times for a couple of nonfiction history books for class, when the price differential was > 50% (i.e $12 + shipping for the used pback...$5 for the ebook). But I felt bad doing it. I try not to buy any DRM'd content for higher than the price of a rental or the same property used. That includes books, video games, etc. For books, that's like $2 or so for fiction most of the time, for XBLA games $8 tops, for DRM'd PC games (like via Steam) it's under $10.

Like I said earlier, I don't understand (I guess it is maximizing profit) why some ebooks are more than pbooks - though that is not usually the case.

Either way, imo, ebooks are much preferable to me than a pbook - for reasons I got into earlier. While I'd rather not pay a premium (and in most cases you don't), it is worth a premium in my mind, and I will pay it (within reason) - even if 'you' can't explain/justify the premium based on how much it costs to actually manufacture an ebook vs. pbook. Sometimes it is not all about how much it costs to make something, but about the benefits perceived by the end user.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by foghat

Like I said earlier, I don't understand (I guess it is maximizing profit) why some ebooks are more than pbooks - though that is not usually the case.

It's generally down to the fact that the retailer has discounted the paper book, but not the eBook.

[mish]

I don't plan to do anything different than what I'm doing now or what I did (and still do) with pbooks. We all have our price points that we are willing to pay for whatever reasons we decide are important. Many of you are more generous than I am in this area. I am pretty frugal in my price points. Personally, I don't think ebooks are anywhere near as valuable to me as pbooks and that reflects in what I will pay. Also, there is no book I can't live without. If it is too expensive, I'll move on to another book. There are tons of options for me to get low-priced books (e or p). I'm an equal opportunity reader...I'll read ebooks or pbooks.

Right now, indie authors and small press authors make more money off me than trad authors ever have, so pbffft to big house pricing

The big houses are going to have to wake up, reinvent themselves, and lean out their processes if they are ever going to compete in the long term.

[Lemurion]

Nothing says Agency Pricing like "This price was set by the publisher" on a free book.

I don't care who set the price for an ebook or how they arrived at it. I just care if the price matches the amount I'm willing to pay for that book; and that number isn't the same for all books.

I'm going to keep buying books I want that are in my price range - and keep reading freebies. I have lots to read.

[GA Russell]

I get the impression that most posters here have fiction in mind. I think that the situation for non-fiction is different.

I can imagine that the BHP will for years to come get top dollar for eBooks of brand new topical political non-fiction, such as the works of predictably best selling authors Bob Woodward and Ann Coulter.

I don't know what the demand for such works are two years after release, but I imagine it isn't much. So I can foresee the day when Woodward and Coulter command over $12.00 for the eBooks of newly issued works, but whose prices drop to $5.00 and less after a couple of years.

[Klim Chugunkin]

The publishers will overcharge for ebooks and infest them with DRM as long as enough people are happy to oblige and take it up the pipe. The only way to change the current situation is to stop buying such books. That's what I've done.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by ficbot

So, I have decided that I am going to vote with my wallet and just wait it out. Here is my plan:

I plan to lose weight. I plan to reduce my consumption of chocolate. I plan to regulate my purchase of ebooks.

The best planned lays of mice & men gang aft agley...

[MickeyC]

I know someone who works at the Library of Congress and they told me the publishing industry tried to convince them it costs just as much to deliver an eBook as it does a pBook because of the bandwidth required.

Scary thing is some people probably believed this malarkey!

[gimmeshelter]

Absolutely with everyone on this. How dare Waterstones tell me that I can still keep my 'downloaded' books - big deal. I also think that a plan would be to write to the Authors -surely they have a vested interest in their books selling??? I'm still downloading from Books on Board and Book Depository, and building up a stock pile and shall hopefully see Waterstones and WH Smith bite the dust even if that takes a while. I think, that there will be a whole new batch of ebook retailers coming through. Let's hope I'm still alive to see it.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I plan to lose weight. I plan to reduce my consumption of chocolate. I plan to regulate my purchase of ebooks.

The best planned lays of mice & men gang aft agley...

I can live with that pledge (I'll have your share).