e-book pricing
tokyogai
11/10/2011 8:13:56 AM
While I agree generally with your outlook on the whole e-book market, publishers seems to be making some serious mistakes that will effect the whole future of the business. e-books should have a much lower cost than conventional books in that there is no need to publish paper, ship to retail outlets and accept returns-- all of which are cost elements. So why then are many books more expensive as e-books? That just doesn't make sense and I am sure is upsetting many customers. e-books should be cheaper- reflecting the lower costs. The current model truly encourages illegal copies. Maybe they should take a page out of the music industry's book and think twice about policies going forward.
Since adding the Kindle app to my tablet I have been reading a lot more, just the fact that I always have any number of books ready to read makes it more likely I will dive in during some down time.
Since you were looking for some return on your investment, you must be happy with Amazon's new lending program for Kindle owners. Enjoy!
e-Books
PAW
11/10/2011 12:21:47 PM
I loaded my Kindle with numerous books (some for free) that I have been wanting to read. Now, whenever I have some downtime, it is great to have it so easily available. I get a lot more reading done now.
Good point. The best strategy to fight against piracy to low the content price to a reasonable level, like Apple did to music downloading. At $0.99 a song, most people will prefer the legal copy. At $9.99 a song, I doubt.
e-Book pricing models are still in flux. Today the retail price on many books is set by the publisher, and this causes a large amount of variety in the prices we pay.
99 cents can work for music, because millions of people buy the same song. With a few exceptions (Harry Potter), even best-selling books aren't sold in that volume; so the pricing will need to be higher to cover the marketing costs, author royalties, and retailer’s cut.
I am not quite convinced. If an excellent or popular book, which is sold in high volume, shall be priced at $0.99, why shall a medicore, unpopular book be sold at higher price? Just because the publisher need a high profit margin to cover his expense, it is not an excuse for most consumers to agree.
The most ridiculous part is: for the same book, hard copy cost less than the kindle copy. For example: Ben Graham's "intelligent investors", hard copy costs $14.95, while kindle version costs $16.99, it does not make sense to me at all.
Re: e-book pricing
tokyogai
11/10/2011 4:18:22 PM
That's my point. I am not asking for 99 cents, but pricing higher than a hardcover makes no sense at all. Maybe books should be $2.99. That is low enough to curtail piracy, but high enough to cover costs.
I think that once e-books become more widely used the price will come down dramaticly since there will be far less books printed.
There you go Joey!
Dex
11/10/2011 5:45:14 PM
I challenge anyone to critique you THIS week! Nice to see a young adult who--gasp--still reads.
Amazon's e-book lending program doesn't seem all that great to be honest. It's only available to Amazon prime subscribers, and at $80 dollars a year its hard for me to justify subbing when the only thing I would get out of it is 1 borrowed book a month (yeah, 1 book a month).
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