What is with these Publishers?

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by zacheryjensen

But that said, if you really just need a place to point your fingers, then look no further than our dear friend: Amazon.com.

I point my finger and say thank you. Thank you for saving me money.

[vaughnmr]

Amen. If you want to make me choose sides between Amazon and the publishers, you are going to be sorely disappointed. I'm voting with my wallet.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

Amen. If you want to make me choose sides between Amazon and the publishers, you are going to be sorely disappointed. I'm voting with my wallet.

It's OK to choose Amazon and your wallet but you must be also willing to accept that when Amazon makes publishing unprofitable for anyone but Amazon, there is the risk of no competition, suddenly higher prices, and even lower quality than currently exists. Sometimes the best choice is not the least-expensive-to-me choice and sometimes it is.

[citac]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

When The Time Traveler's Wife ebooks are outlawed, only outlaws will have The Time Traveler's Wife ebooks.

Is that an Equilibrium reference?

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I point my finger and say thank you. Thank you for saving me money.

I point my finger and say there is a company that did their market research 3 years ago to come up with a viable price for the electronic book market.

[vaughnmr]

Originally Posted by rhadin

It's OK to choose Amazon and your wallet but you must be also willing to accept that when Amazon makes publishing unprofitable for anyone but Amazon, there is the risk of no competition, suddenly higher prices, and even lower quality than currently exists. Sometimes the best choice is not the least-expensive-to-me choice and sometimes it is.

Do you really believe that's going to happen? I know you're pro-publisher, but I'm here to tell you that business as usual with the publishers is not going to survive. Charging the same for hb as ebooks is rubbish. Making customers put up with all the various forms of DRM is crap. Delaying ebooks to make more money off hb is stupid. Every one of those acts makes piracy more attractive for those who are so inclined, for the rest of us it just makes things worse for the true customers.

If that's the path some publishers want to take, fine with me. I WILL NOT support you with my money! My choice.

[vaughnmr]

Sorry, I guess I'm becoming a cynic. There are some good things happening in the ebook marketplace, it just doesn't involved the majority of the publishers.

[Boston]

Before I jumped on the ebook bandwagon, I seldom bought HB books. An avid reader, I easily spent about $100/month on books.

Once I got my book reader, I was willing to spend $9.99 for a ebook still in HB and I read more books.

With the publisher's delay in releasing ebooks (or the vendor keeping the price above $9.99), I now find myself adding them to my wishlist and waiting. Once the desire to read right away has passed, I become much more price sensitive.

In the past month, I noticed two distinct trends:
- The ebook is within $1 of the available PB book. In which case, I don't buy at all on principle.
-I can often get the paper version much cheaper (bargain priced or sold used). As much as I prefer ebooks, I have gone back to buying some books in paper on the used/bargain market. I prefer ebook reading but can't justify it when paper is 1/2 the price.

I can't see how any of this is good for the publishers.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by rhadin

It's OK to choose Amazon and your wallet but you must be also willing to accept that when Amazon makes publishing unprofitable for anyone but Amazon

Funny, Baen seem to be doing just fine at ebook prices considerably lower than $9.99. For every single book. Hm, is that... smoke? From which orifice?

[fugazied]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

For me, this delay policy will just decrease the ebooks I buy from that publisher. Like many owners of ebooks, I have loaded more books than I can ever read in any reasonable time (like my lifetime!), so delaying an ebook release merely short-circuits my impulse buy of that title.

Me too. For buyers like us, they are just losing sales. If publishers were smarter they would have reps sitting in communities like this one, gauging the feelings of more hardcore e-reader fans. They would soon realise that we hate DRM and that their 'marketing strategies' are losing them sales.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

Do you really believe that's going to happen? I know you're pro-publisher, but I'm here to tell you that business as usual with the publishers is not going to survive.

I want to clarify: I am not "pro-publisher." Rather, I believe that pub lishers have a role to play in the production of books, a role that cannot be replaced by authors themselves. I agree that publishers need to change and I am not an advocate of charging the same price for an ebook as for a hardcover.

What I am not for is dismissing cavalierly the publisher's role. I think the dismissal is often as a result of inadequate knowledge of what publishers do and/or a blind refusal to accept that publishers have a continuing role to play and that publishers, just like Amazon, need to be profitable.

And to tell me that publishers need to change or die doesn't address either consumers legitimate complaints or publishers legitimate problems.

[DawnFalcon]

Quite, you're insistent that not one iota of change occur, because your own business model is dependent on the status quo. That status quo was dependent on maintaining scarcity, which is no longer true.

New authors don't need to go through a publisher to start building a readership. Even if big publishers survive, they can expect to face not people coming cap in hand, but people who already have a readership.

Tis just too bad if you pinned your hopes on nothing changing (since it already is).

[vaughnmr]

Originally Posted by rhadin

What I am not for is dismissing cavalierly the publisher's role. I think the dismissal is often as a result of inadequate knowledge of what publishers do and/or a blind refusal to accept that publishers have a continuing role to play and that publishers, just like Amazon, need to be profitable.

I don't disagree with at all about the role of the publishers. It's just their business model that screams "screw the customer" that I have a problem with. Do me a favor, Richard, and go buy any one ebook from every distributor out there, and then put the book on your (kindle/sony/nook/whatever) ereader, and tell me about your experiences (without removing the DRM). THEN tell me about how wonderful the publishers are.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

I don't disagree with at all about the role of the publishers. It's just their business model that screams "screw the customer" that I have a problem with.

Oh, please.

There is absolutely no obligation (financial or ethical) to base the price of a product exclusively on the cost to produce the item. Many titles, in fact, don't even turn a profit; how does that figure into your analysis?

The publishers do the same thing as the retailers, distributors, authors, device makers and pretty much everyone else. They're putting out a product with the expectation that they will be compensated for the work they perform and the risks they take. Some publishers do not make smart decisions or act appropriately, but the same can be said for just about every organization or class of individual involved in the process -- including the customers.

Originally Posted by vaughnmr

go buy any one ebook from every distributor out there, and then put the book on your (kindle/sony/nook/whatever) ereader, and tell me about your experiences (without removing the DRM). THEN tell me about how wonderful the publishers are.

And why, pray tell, do I need multiple devices that perform almost exactly the same task in nearly identical fashions? Not to mention that if I buy a Kindle or B&N book, there are cross-platform and multiple-device options, e.g. I can read those same exact books on an iPhone or PC, and the range of options in this respect is likely to grow.

Or, in comparison: Buy a game for the XBox, and it won't play on your PC, your Playstation or your Wii. I don't hear too many people claiming that Nintendo's model is to "screw the customer," because games written for the Wii aren't cross-platform....

[DawnFalcon]

Actually platform divisions are screwing over the games industry very badly.