Pricing and Policies ... what is fair?

[Richwood]

I am an antique who remembers when a paperback novel was typically priced in the 35 to 50 cents range. Extra thick ones cost 95 cents. I still have a few in my library. To me a ebook novel priced at $9.95 is ridiculous considering that the publishing cost of an ebook is minimal and there is no need for the publisher to worry about returns for credit from stores as there is for printed books and magazines sold by retailers. I agree that authors should be supported but I wonder what percentage of the retail ebook price actually reaches the author from a major name publisher.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Richwood

I agree that authors should be supported but I wonder what percentage of the retail ebook price actually reaches the author from a major name publisher.

None. Most books don't 'earn out' their advance.

But the amount from the sale that is credited against the advance will be in the 10-30% range. For paperbacks it's in the 5-10% range.

At least, that's my understanding. But contracts will vary.

[haertig]

When I consider buying a book, I don't know and don't care how much the author will make off the sale. Or the publisher. Or the distributor. Or the retail sales location. That is true for any tangible (non-service) product, not just books. The only thing I care about is "does this seem like a reasonable price, for me, to use it for what I want to use it for?" And my criteria for what is reasonable for me varies day to day, minute to minute. Retailers can't depend on anything when trying to predict if I'll buy the book or not. There may be a few general guidelines they can use - like a novel, any novel, no matter how good it is - is just not going to get me to pay over $25. That's not set in stone, but unless you like betting with odds of 99:1 against, don't count on it.

It is always, "What is this worth to me?" when I decide to buy or not. I have zero concern for what is fair to the folks in the chain that created it. They figured out what they thought was fair when they priced the item. They can price it wherever they want. That's their half of the equation. My half of the equation has to do only with my evaluation of the price in the context of "me", not in the context of "them".

For services purchases, things get turned around. When I go into a restaurant, I look at the price of a potential meal and evaluate that in the context of "me". But once I've ordered it and consumed it, I evaluate what size tip I will leave for the server based on "them". What do I think is reasonable and fair for them based on how much effort I think they put into taking care of me.

I don't tip on book purchases, so those are a "me" context item. Purchase or not is totally at my whim. Zero thought given to whether the price is fair to the creation chain. They had their shot when they priced it, now it's my turn.

[Simboubou]

Originally Posted by Richwood

I am an antique who remembers when a paperback novel was typically priced in the 35 to 50 cents range. Extra thick ones cost 95 cents. I still have a few in my library. To me a ebook novel priced at $9.95 is ridiculous considering that the publishing cost of an ebook is minimal and there is no need for the publisher to worry about returns for credit from stores as there is for printed books and magazines sold by retailers. I agree that authors should be supported but I wonder what percentage of the retail ebook price actually reaches the author from a major name publisher.

I discussed this with an small editor during a convention.
He explained that this idea of the "cost of an ebook" is almost nothing is misleading.

Copying a file doesn't cost much indeed, but to be fair the actual price of producing a paperback is quite low, too.

The price of a physical book is mostly to pay the author, the proofreader, the guy how created the text layout, the rent of the physical store, etc...
And while some of thoses expense don't exist for ebooks, others do : the price of developping (or buying) a website, the price of servers and maintenance, etc...

[darryl]

Originally Posted by Simboubou

I discussed this with an small editor during a convention.
He explained that this idea of the "cost of an ebook" is almost nothing is misleading.

Copying a file doesn't cost much indeed, but to be fair the actual price of producing a paperback is quite low, too.

The price of a physical book is mostly to pay the author, the proofreader, the guy how created the text layout, the rent of the physical store, etc...
And while some of thoses expense don't exist for ebooks, others do : the price of developping (or buying) a website, the price of servers and maintenance, etc...

It is not correct to say that the cost of an e-book is almost nothing. It is correct to say that the marginal cost of each e-book is next to nothing. Some of the fixed initial costs are of course common to both e-books and print books. But there are very significant costs of printing, warehousing and distributing each print book produced, which simply do not apply or are negligible in relation to e-books.

[4691mls]

What Haertig said about products and services got me thinking. There is some level of service with every product. Someone (or a team of people) has to come up with the idea for a new product, then someone (who may or may not be the person who had the idea) makes the product. Then there is the cost of materials. In the case of a large, tangible product like an automobile the cost of the materials is significant. Or the restaurant meal Haertig mentioned may include hard-to-find expensive ingredients.

In the case of a book, a lot of what we are paying for is the creativity and possibly research work of the author plus the services of the author, editor and publisher. Should we discount the value of their work just because we aren't buying a physical paper book? Do we want to reward their work so they will keep creating new ebooks?

I personally don't have the funds to buy every book I'd like to read at the price charged when the book is new. I am grateful that there are people who can afford to pay the new-book price to help keep the authors and publishers turning out books, even if I have to wait for those books to drop in price or become available at the library before I can read them.