eBook sales are down 17%

[Deskisamess]

Originally Posted by PeterT

What annoys me about ebook pricing vs paperback is that a paperback I can sell, or lend to friends; an ebook is mine and only mine.

I’ve heard that same comment many times...but how many people really sell their used books? The last time I had a garage sale, I couldn’t give used books away. And as far as loaning books, I rarely did that either, because when I did, I either didn’t get the book back, or received it back with dog-earned pages and or broken spines.

Digital books can be read by more than one person at the same, can be delivered in the middle of the night, and have all the font and spacing options offered by the various devices. Print books don’t support any of those benefits.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I’ve heard that same comment many times...but how many people really sell their used books? The last time I had a garage sale, I couldn’t give used books away. And as far as loaning books, I rarely did that either, because when I did, I either didn’t get the book back, or received it back with dog-earned pages and or broken spines.

So much for my plans to retire on the fortune I would make selling my second hand paperbacks!

[4691mls]

Another advantage of ebooks - if you have a backup copy of your books and your ereader is damaged or lost, once you replace the device you can install the books on your new device. If a paper book is damaged or lost, you would have to buy a new one to replace it.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I’ve heard that same comment many times...but how many people really sell their used books? The last time I had a garage sale, I couldn’t give used books away. And as far as loaning books, I rarely did that either, because when I did, I either didn’t get the book back, or received it back with dog-earned pages and or broken spines.

Digital books can be read by more than one person at the same, can be delivered in the middle of the night, and have all the font and spacing options offered by the various devices. Print books don’t support any of those benefits.

...and this is why I like ebooks better than paper books.

Shari

[PeterT]

My wife and I have definitely taken paperbacks to second hand book sellers and church bazaars as well as donating them to places such as seniors centers and long term care facilities.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Another advantage of ebooks - if you have a backup copy of your books and your ereader is damaged or lost, once you replace the device you can install the books on your new device. If a paper book is damaged or lost, you would have to buy a new one to replace it.

For that matter, if you are using the device as the manufacturers intend (buying your books from their store) and your reader is damaged or lost, once you replace the device all your books are there, synced to the last page read.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I’ve heard that same comment many times...but how many people really sell their used books? The last time I had a garage sale, I couldn’t give used books away. And as far as loaning books, I rarely did that either, because when I did, I either didn’t get the book back, or received it back with dog-earned pages and or broken spines.

Digital books can be read by more than one person at the same, can be delivered in the middle of the night, and have all the font and spacing options offered by the various devices. Print books don’t support any of those benefits.

When I had my small library, I once bought several boxes of books at a garage sale. I paid less than 10 cents each and the seller and a friend physically carried them to my house.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Kind of funny how even though we are told that the actual printing price is only a small fraction of the cost to produce a book, a trade paperback tends to cost double or more than the exact same book as a mass market paperback.

This street runs both ways.

Generally what you pay for with trade or hard back is getting the book a year before the regular paper back is available. The publisher's price model is mostly based on availability and price points rather than cost of materials. There are a few exceptions to that rule (for example, the first Harry Potter was released later in hard back because people wanted a full set of hard back versions). Trade came out as a less expensive version of the Hardback, not because it was cheaper to produce, but rather because the author didn't have the name recognition to get people to cough up the price of a hard back, but they figured they could get more than paper back prices for it. Sometimes they did a very limited hard back roll out with a simultaneous trade roll out.

If I remember correctly, the first trade that I bought was the Sword of Shannara, which I bought mostly because they used the Brothers Hildebrandt to do the illustrations.

[Philippe D.]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I’ve heard that same comment many times...but how many people really sell their used books? The last time I had a garage sale, I couldn’t give used books away. And as far as loaning books, I rarely did that either, because when I did, I either didn’t get the book back, or received it back with dog-earned pages and or broken spines.

Well, I do occasionnally lend books, and my wife (who is the big reader at home) does it more frequently. None of us are much concerned with the conservation of our books - we also give some away sometimes. Sharing's the point.

My wife almost never re-reads a book, so all those shelves at home are for... well, I don't know what. Nostalgia, maybe. And making sure any friends who visit will find something to read if needed. I often re-read books, to the point that a good fraction of my ebook collection is of books I already have a paper copy of.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Generally what you pay for with trade or hard back is getting the book a year before the regular paper back is available. The publisher's price model is mostly based on availability and price points rather than cost of materials.

I'm not talking about books not available in mass market, I'm talking about books available in both (or books that were available as mass market, but then the publishers realized they could make more sweet, sweet cash by switching to trade).

As examples:

The Fountainhead: MMPB $9.99, TPB $19.99
Gone with the Wind: MMPB gone, TPB $19.99
Lord of the Flies: MMPB $9.30, TPB $16.00
To Kill a Mockingbird: MMPB gone, TPB: 14.99
Stranger in a Strange Land: MMPB $9.99, TPB $18.00

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

The publisher's price model is mostly based on availability and price points rather than cost of materials.

You keep talking about price points. What should those price points be based on?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

You keep talking about price points. What should those price points be based on?

A WEG at the price at which the reduction is sales will not overbalance the increase in profit per unit?

[darryl]

This article and the comments discuss this issue:

http://www.davidderrico.com/cost-bre...printed-books/

Print costs are a fraction of the costs to a Big 5 publisher, but not a small insignificant fraction. And, of course, other costs unique to a print book are shipping and warehousing, and the costs associated with accepting returns (for full credit) of unsold books by bookstores. Unlike ebooks, these costs are incurred for every book printed, sold or unsold. The marginal cost of producing ebooks is negligible.

And as pwalker pointed out in post #218:

Generally what you pay for with trade or hard back is getting the book a year before the regular paper back is available. The publisher's price model is mostly based on availability and price points rather than cost of materials.

Adopting pwalkder's above analysis, historically big publishing has been in control of those very factors, availability and price point. The growth of ebooks and the Indie market, together with Amazon's discounting, deprived them of that control. Agency has given them back control over ebook prices, which they are using in the same old way to perpetuate so far as possible this historical "pricing model". However, their books no longer make up the whole market. There is a significant and growing competitive part of the market where they control neither price nor availability. In the Indie segment of the market it is largely supply and demand which determine the price points for ebooks, not manipulation of price or availability. Indie ebook pricing is therefore a much better reflection of what a proper price for an ebook should be, as it is set by the market without artificial interference or a bias towards protecting and old "price model" for print books.

This leaves large publishing in somewhat of a quandary. If they price an ebook correctly, that is at a point to maximise overall revenue, they risk destroying their paper sales of the particular book. Naturally, like all of us, they would like to have their cake and eat it too. The best of all possible worlds for them is to either "window" the ebook, which has proved to be unpopular and ineffective, or price the ebook at a level so as to preserve paper sales in successive formats. This is what they are doing at the moment. It is, as I said previously, not irrational and currently seems to be working reasonably well for them at the moment.

If you have a few moments, do read the above linked article and comments. It is quite an interesting read.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by gweeks

It's because for YEARS the publishers hammered that the paper prices were going up so they had to raise the price of books.

Yep. So they've been gouging their customers for a lot longer than I thought then?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I don't mind newer books being at/near paper book prices. They have to strike while the iron is hot after all.

It's backlist (fiction) books being sold for +$8.00 that keeps me from buying.

I basically agree with this. It's often cheaper now to buy used (or remainder) paperback books than eBooks. So guess what people buy? Greed tends to short circuit corporations.