The Price of Ebooks!

[April Hamilton]

Originally Posted by moz

As far as file sharing goes, don't worry about it. Focus on making it easy for us to give you money. You can't stop sharing, even if you only sell physical books printed in purple ink on green paper with red hashing to make them hard to scan.

I'm anti-DRM and feel once someone has bought a copy of anything, it's theirs to do with what they please, including sending it on to someone else for use when they're done with it. I also accept that once someone buys a digital file from me, I can't stop them from making unlimited copies to hand out for free or even re-sell, either. I think the great majority of people are honest and would stop short of doing those things. However, there are internet trolls out there who think all digital media should be free and therefore gladly post links for order fulfillment pages or server-resident files in their various usergroups, chat rooms and online communities (fancying themselves cyber-Robin Hoods, I guess) so anyone who sees the link can get the product without paying. Surely, many people here have come across sites like I'm describing while googling for ebook sites? That kind of link-sharing is a far cry from lending or giving away a book, CD, DVD or ebook you've purchased and are now ready to pass on.

Jon - as to the password-protected page idea, trolls can just post the password right along with the link. I've been experimenting w/ various autoresponders, but it seems that unless I'm willing to run a dedicated mail server here at my house or pay monthly to rent space on someone else's dedicated mail server, it's not feasible. Given that I don't expect volume to be very high, it's probably cheaper for me to buy a wireless card for my PocketPC to keep on top of orders when I'm away from home than to pay monthly fees for autoresponder capability.

[moz]

April, can't you just buy really cheap hosting somewhere and put an email auto-responder on it? I have several domains hosted on two providers (so I get email even if one is down), and it can be done really cheaply. Someone here could probably write a simple PHP script that will generate a link that's only valid for 24 hours, or for the original IP, or whatever. Running that on a $5/mo web host would be simple.

I don't know, but my impression was that most of the file-sharing stuff is done by people collecting works into giant libraries and using BitTorrent. I really can't imagine pirates downloading one book at a time from your website - one of them will do that once, then collect and share. Google will show you a lot of those... "heinlein torrent" (http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...inlein+torrent) finds a number of multi-gigabyte collections of science fiction, for example. Those are the ones that inevitably come up when I'm looking for ebooks.

[April Hamilton]

The script I bought before was a php, and the thing just won't work. I own two separate domains and the servers on them have always been very reliable re: down time and email forwarding, but neither one offers any kind of native autoresponder scripts.

Anyhoo...I've got an order page set up now for .pdfs to be manually fulfilled and I've linked it to my blog page (if interested, you can click on my name and follow the 'my web page' link). I guess it'll do for now, and since I don't have any big vacations planned in the near future I can probably keep on top of it. A more urgent priority may be getting additional file formats available on the order form. Thanks for taking the time to make some suggestions, though.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by April Hamilton

The script I bought before was a php, and the thing just won't work. I own two separate domains and the servers on them have always been very reliable re: down time and email forwarding, but neither one offers any kind of native autoresponder scripts.

Anyhoo...I've got an order page set up now for .pdfs to be manually fulfilled and I've linked it to my blog page (if interested, you can click on my name and follow the 'my web page' link). I guess it'll do for now, and since I don't have any big vacations planned in the near future I can probably keep on top of it. A more urgent priority may be getting additional file formats available on the order form. Thanks for taking the time to make some suggestions, though.

Have you looked at the PP page on Digital Delivery solutions? There are serveral providers. Also there are some solid e-commerce solutions out there that address this situation. But one needs to get it that it costs a fair amount for automated, tested, certified systems. I run into potential clients all the time who expect a $500 package to be totally turn-key, secure, invincible, faster then a speeding bullet and they want it in 5-days. And free support when they have no idea what heck to do once you hand them the keys.

I am no longer doing development for a living but I have never charged under $15k for a site. Which is typically very overkill for a low volume start-up situation. I can recommend an excellent e-commerce package that I have used on many sites. It is called ASPDotNetStoreFront (I know it's a mouthful) but it's extremely complete and solid. Still expect to invest at minimum $1000 in the software. They even have a SF that fully integrates with DNN. Typically including graphics it takes me a 5-10 days designing the solution to meet the client's needs then solid 3-5 weeks to get things installed & tuned. I have used it almost since it began and can say it's about the most complete SF frameworks with a fantastic price point. Easy to skin and very, very easy to customize.

But I have the believe there is a simply PayPal based solution with one of the PayPal developers. PayPal's API really makes these things quite easy. So I would look into that if it's been a while. Here is a link to that page on PP:

https://www.paypal.com/en_US/html/So...ry/sd_dgd.html

Basically automation, more importantly secure automation, is going to cost more.

Best of luck...wish I was still working or I would give ya a hand. But, I had to stop, basically body parts falling apart piece meal rather then all at once...hehehe so, I never know what days I will be up to working.

[April Hamilton]

So far I've got .pdf and .prc versions for sale through my blog (click on my name and follow link to 'my webpage' if interested), and I've converted them to .lrf too but I'm waiting for a Sony ereader owner to check out the converted files for me before I put them on sale.

I'm also intending to offer .pdb files; are there any other popular formats I'm missing?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by April Hamilton

So far I've got .pdf and .prc versions for sale through my blog (click on my name and follow link to 'my webpage' if interested), and I've converted them to .lrf too but I'm waiting for a Sony ereader owner to check out the converted files for me before I put them on sale.

I'm also intending to offer .pdb files; are there any other popular formats I'm missing?

Maybe LIT and RTF, possibly IMP?

[binzer]

I don't mind paying more than I should for books since I'm used to it (especially being Canadian) but I don't really understand why any e-book should be almost the same price as the real thing. E-books are literally next to free for publishers to distribute, and it's essentially a way for them to get giant piles of money for nothing. Printing, binding, and shipping books is expensive, and that's what consumers usually pay for. Data is next to free.

They obviously can't make prices so low that they undermine the paper market, but even if they did undermine the paper market it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for anyone but paper bookstores (and I'm assuming that the publishers are more self-interested). Even if they halved the current e-book prices they would probably make more profit than they do on paper books, and I think they would get a lot more people switching to e-books (thus increasing their profit). People who already buy e-books would probably also be willing to buy a lot more, and become interested or hooked on authors they may not have otherwise tried.

I think one main reason that many people don't buy e-readers is because they can't justify the cost when they're only going to save a couple dollars on their next book. If the savings were a lot more obvious I think we'd have more of an e-book revolution.

Sorry if this was off topic...the title of the thread got me going.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by April Hamilton

I'm right there with you; *I* can't even read the Kindle editions of my novels, since I don't own a Kindle.

I'm in the process of adding sales links for .pdf versions to my blog page. Can the Sony read .pdf? How about .rtf? My novels aren't heavily formatted, so even .txt would probably do, but I tend to use 1.5 line spacing for easier readability (an even more critical issue on ereaders than on paper, I feel) and I think that would be lost in a .txt file. If you name the format I can probably find a file converter to make it somewhere out there in the ether...

Michael McCollom uses PDF for his Sony Reader format files. He just formats them at the correct size for the Sony screen. They read well and retain his layout. I think there is info on the Wiki as to what page size you should use to format a PDF for Sony Readers.

BOb

[hidari]

Well stated. I live in Japan now. Any books that are imported are really high in price; usually 1500-2500 yen or more at times. I am a ardent fan of ebook reading since i "converted" this past year. I have to agree, until the cost of ebooks come down to a reasonable price, the market will be slow. However, As a huge fan of Literature, history, science, and philosophy;both old and new, there are heaps and heaps of books to get for free on the net at sites such as
PG.

Originally Posted by binzer

I don't mind paying more than I should for books since I'm used to it (especially being Canadian) but I don't really understand why any e-book should be almost the same price as the real thing. E-books are literally next to free for publishers to distribute, and it's essentially a way for them to get giant piles of money for nothing. Printing, binding, and shipping books is expensive, and that's what consumers usually pay for. Data is next to free.

They obviously can't make prices so low that they undermine the paper market, but even if they did undermine the paper market it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for anyone but paper bookstores (and I'm assuming that the publishers are more self-interested). Even if they halved the current e-book prices they would probably make more profit than they do on paper books, and I think they would get a lot more people switching to e-books (thus increasing their profit). People who already buy e-books would probably also be willing to buy a lot more, and become interested or hooked on authors they may not have otherwise tried.

I think one main reason that many people don't buy e-readers is because they can't justify the cost when they're only going to save a couple dollars on their next book. If the savings were a lot more obvious I think we'd have more of an e-book revolution.

Sorry if this was off topic...the title of the thread got me going.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by hidari

Well stated. I live in Japan now. Any books that are imported are really high in price; usually 1500-2500 yen or more at times. I am a ardent fan of ebook reading since i "converted" this past year. I have to agree, until the cost of ebooks come down to a reasonable price, the market will be slow. However, As a huge fan of Literature, history, science, and philosophy;both old and new, there are heaps and heaps of books to get for free on the net at sites such as
PG.

Sites like Fictionwise have huge number of books available in the $5-$8 or so price range. Personally I think that's an absolute bargain.

[JimConnell]

It seems to me that the price of e-books is high.

Given that the marginal cost of e-books is almost 0, then the standard royalty to the author plus a fair profit for the publisher and the distributor should be the right price.

There are no costs of printing and binding, so it seems to me that the standard price of $9.99 for a Kindle best seller is making someone (probably not the author) a lot of money.

Is anyone in the industry who can shed more light on this?

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Sites like Fictionwise have huge number of books available in the $5-$8 or so price range. Personally I think that's an absolute bargain.

Harry, I respectfully disagree. I can go to Walmart and buy most mass-market paperbacks at that price.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by JimConnell

It seems to me that the price of e-books is high.

Given that the marginal cost of e-books is almost 0, then the standard royalty to the author plus a fair profit for the publisher and the distributor should be the right price.

yes, absolutely.

There are no costs of printing and binding, so it seems to me that the standard price of $9.99 for a Kindle best seller is making someone (probably not the author) a lot of money.

it does seem so doesn't it ?

[April Hamilton]

I think publishers pre-load overhead costs onto any edition of a book, hardcopy or electronic. I'm not saying it's right, and clearly they're capable of using a scaled approach because hardcovers cost a lot more than paperbacks (and I don't believe every bit of the added expense on hardcovers is production cost). I think the problem is that publishers haven't truly committed to ebooks in general, so they haven't bothered to make them a more attractive product line. Ebooks still comprise a tiny piece of annual book sales, but I think it's inevitable that the situation will change.

I released both my novels in Kindle, .pdf, .prc and trade paperback editions. The Kindle and paperback editions are selling, but I've yet to sell a single copy in .pdf or .prc. I assume this is because the Kindle and trade paperback editions are listed on Amazon and therefore have higher visibility, while the .pdf and .prc editions are only available on my web site. Whatever the cause, this lack of sales has discouraged me from looking into tools to convert my books into additional ebook formats. The situation raises another issue: lack of standardization in ebook formats. In my own experience, getting my books into many different formats is kind of a hassle, and not worth the effort if those formats don't sell.

April L. Hamilton

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

Harry, I respectfully disagree. I can go to Walmart and buy most mass-market paperbacks at that price.

I said that I regard it as a bargain. You may be able to go to Walmart and buy books at that price, but I can't. The typical paperback book in the UK costs about £7-8 -- about US$15. For someone living in the UK, therefore, being able to buy an eBook for a third to a half that most definitely is a real bargain.