05-30-2011, 03:47 PM | #1 |
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Why are ebooks so expensive?
So far I have been reading ebooks either from public domain or borrowed from libraries with overdrive. I also buy paperbooks.
Recently, I thought I would switch to buying ebooks instead of paperbooks. However, I was disgusted to find that ebooks are the same price, or more expensive than their paper counterpart! And on top of that, they are defective with DRM. Common sense dictates that they should be half the price or less than a paperbook. Ideally, a paperbook should also come with a free ebook version if available. Why is the pricing so wrong? Are publishers trying to prevent ebooks from taking off? |
05-30-2011, 03:55 PM | #2 |
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This is a common question. The search function is your friend, for example from a quick search for "expensive e-book" -- https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...oto=nextnewest
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05-30-2011, 03:56 PM | #3 |
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Do a search on the term "agency model" or "agency 5" or "agency 6" or "agency pricing". This has been discussed on MR before. You just have to find it.
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05-30-2011, 03:59 PM | #4 |
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Publisher greed, what else? Fighting the paradigm change tooth and nail.
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05-30-2011, 05:12 PM | #5 |
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Poor baby. I am disgusted with these posts. Defective with DRM? The ones I buy are less expensive than hard copy.
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05-30-2011, 05:14 PM | #6 |
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Books not under the big 6 are pretty cheap. Most are $5 and less, though there are a couple on my "to read" list that are up to $7.99.
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05-30-2011, 05:57 PM | #7 |
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Most of the books I want to buy are $6 or less. I believe this is a fair price, considering who has to be supported (author, editor, publishing house overhead and kobo).
I have only encountered the agency pricing on one book; I know this because it was the only book kobo's frequent discount codes do not work for. Sadly, I have not purchased General's Daughter (a great mystery) for this reason. I'll live. |
05-30-2011, 06:18 PM | #8 |
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In Canada, The General's Daughter is $7.99 at Kobobooks and not available at all at Amazon as a Kindle. This is why I am happy to have both a Kobo and a Kindle -- there's a choice. I don't consider $8 out of line; the paperback is $9.50.
Then again, I don't agree with the OP: my experience is that ebooks are generally a considerable savings over available print copies and DRM seems to work just fine (I haven't found it to be defective). |
05-30-2011, 06:20 PM | #9 |
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$6 is my pricepoint as well. If I want a book that is more, I wait until I get a $5 Amazon gift certificate from swagbucks, and use that to fund part of the purchase.
Since I have hundreds of ebooks in my to-be-read queue, and have access to another boatload via the library, I just wait for the price to come down. No doubt on some books I will wait in futility, but I'll never run out of books to read. |
05-30-2011, 06:22 PM | #10 |
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05-30-2011, 07:12 PM | #11 | |
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05-30-2011, 07:45 PM | #12 | |
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Vic |
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05-30-2011, 07:48 PM | #13 | |
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Quote:
ETA: A quick search revealed a NYT article which identified the cost of printing, storing, and shipping a hypothetical $26 book at $3.25. Last edited by witeowl; 05-30-2011 at 07:54 PM. |
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05-30-2011, 07:56 PM | #14 | ||
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Quote:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...15&post1014815 https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=452 Quote:
Plus, sales should be increasing dramatically, to stay in proportion to sales of devices, which are selling like hotcakes, and the reports I've seen show that the #1 reason or one of the top 3 reasons people gave for buying an ereader was the cheaper cost of ebooks vs paper. Personally, I'll gladly pay the premium for new releases, but I don't see how publishers can expect people not to complain when there are so many situations like this: George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 4-Book Boxed Set: Kindle Edition $35.99 Paperback $19.77 Or the Roberta Gellis and SK Penman book prices, or which are/*were even more ridiculous. *A few weeks later, the prices on 9 of the Roberta Gellis' backlist books I was wanting came available on Baen, or dropped from $9.99 to $5-6. At that point, I bought them all. Anyway, I don't think they need to be uber-cheap, but I do think publishers need to adjust their pricing strategies for ebooks. I expect they will, as time shows what great customers we are. |
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05-30-2011, 08:04 PM | #15 | |
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