Ebook prices drive me insane

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

A quick search using ebookprice.info returned this.

Interesting site! I'll bookmark it/

[Wetdogeared]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

Interesting site! I'll bookmark it/

It's a great resource for finding eBooks in all formats (or pBooks) and comparing prices and they are constantly adding new sources.

[formerroadie]

Have they put the Harry Potter books into e-format anywhere?

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by formerroadie

Have they put the Harry Potter books into e-format anywhere?

Not anywhere legal as far as I know.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by sony_fox

Other than shear exploitation of ebook readers why is this [hardback price] at all relevant?

Because the ebook is from the American publisher, and most American publishers have this crazy idea that when only the hardback is available, the ebook retail price ought to match the hardback price.

Usually, once it appears in a US paperback edition, the ebook price drops.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Usually, once it appears in a US paperback edition, the ebook price drops.

Yeah, well, your publishers should talk to our publishers and explain them that

[ascherjim]

One REALLY needs to shop around, at least for a U.S. purchaser. A new title I was searching for yesterday (name irrelevant) was over $30 at the Sony bookstore (the same price as the hardcover), a little over $19 in Kindle -- and a little over $5 (Yes, $5!) at one of my other usual ebook sellers (from which I promptly purchased it). And this price disparity (and cheapness) is not consistent among my sources. Go figure.

[FlorenceArt]

Wow, I had no idea the differences could be so huge

[AnemicOak]

This is just a guess, but with the way things have been lately I'd guess once Reich's new book hits the bestseller list (which it should) then Amazon will drop their price to $9.99 and sometime after that you might be able to get it from BoB or FW for around the same price. At least that's happened with a few "hard cover" type releases I've bought lately.

[Dopedangel]

The prices of ebooks will remain unreasonable until there is wide spread adoption of electronic readers and ebook piracy starts hitting the publishers bottom line.
So far the average age of users I think is over 30 once the younger generation adopts
it they are the ones that are used to getting things free of the internet like movies, songs, Tv shows so would not like to pay $20-25 for something they might only read once
So you will have to wait for another 4-5 years.
Before ebooks have a watershed moment like the music industry did with mp3.

[bill_mchale]

Originally Posted by sony_fox

Other than shear exploitation of ebook readers why is this at all relevant?

I'm quite happy to accept that a hardback costs more to produce than a paperback (I'm not quite sure it's 3x as much but that's another argument). However I am very sure that an ebook is an ebook and doesn't change in costs (if anything it gets more expensive over time (server storage) rather than less). Having new ebook titles at hardback prices is just outrageous.

One of the main advantages is the whole convenience thing, want click have, but encouraging readers to wait until the paperback comes out is just counterproductive.

You have to remember, the Publishing industry is basically trying to preserve the basic model of business that has been around since the invention of the mass market paperback book (other aspects started in the Great Depression). To their mind, books generally have two periods of peak sale; the first is when it is released in hardback. They charge higher prices because they know that a large number of people don't want to wait until the book comes out in paperback to read it. Then 6 months or a year later, they release in paperback and expect another sales peak. They figure they will get about the same number of sales anyway, its just they get a premium from the earlier adopters.

Shoot, the publishing industry has one of the worst business models I have ever seen. Roughly half the product they ship to stores is not sold (or at least not sold at anywhere near the cover price for hardback books). Hardbacks get shipped back and forth between the publisher and various book stores, discount stores, etc. Unsold paperbacks are trashed, etc. This might have been tolerable 30 years ago, but now that Print on Demand exists, it really is rather ridiculous. Hehe, every environmentalist who publishes a book the traditional way should be raked over the coals for the environmental damage their book produces.

--
Bill

[LDBoblo]

Soo...buy the paper version if it's cheaper. Ebooks are pretty ridiculous overall. Since the things are often such poor quality in terms of layout and setting, I'm tempted to just stick with free sources of rubbish until there's a convenient way for me to slip a fiver to the author and get the book directly...especially since I'll probably have to reformat it myself anyway.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by sony_fox

Other than shear exploitation of ebook readers why is this at all relevant?

I'm quite happy to accept that a hardback costs more to produce than a paperback (I'm not quite sure it's 3x as much but that's another argument). However I am very sure that an ebook is an ebook and doesn't change in costs (if anything it gets more expensive over time (server storage) rather than less). Having new ebook titles at hardback prices is just outrageous.

One of the main advantages is the whole convenience thing, want click have, but encouraging readers to wait until the paperback comes out is just counterproductive.

It's relevant because the publishers are businesses trying to make money from selling books and while we would like to see ebooks come out at the same time as the hardback for a much lower price it just doesn't make sense for them to do that.

Ideally they would release ebooks at normal prices when the hardback came out, but the compromise of charging a premium or holding back the ebook until the paperback is released doesn't seem so terrible, especially when there are far more issues with unrealistic pricing than that.

[sircastor]

Originally Posted by Crowl

It's relevant because the publishers are businesses trying to make money from selling books and while we would like to see ebooks come out at the same time as the hardback for a much lower price it just doesn't make sense for them to do that.

Ideally they would release ebooks at normal prices when the hardback came out, but the compromise of charging a premium or holding back the ebook until the paperback is released doesn't seem so terrible, especially when there are far more issues with unrealistic pricing than that.

I disagree with that. I think releasing eBooks at the same time as a hardback for less money makes a lot of sense. Because you've skipped production and distribution, the price you're charging for the eBook is almost pure profit, You've already done the majority of the work in editing.

Without knowing the profit margin on hardback books, I can tell you that while it's high, It still can't beat an eBook at a lower price. The eBook has a non-substantial cost-per-unit that the hardback (or paperback) does not have. The advantage that publishers have right now, is that they can cater to the small-but-growing crowd of eBook customers - lower price means greater accessibility. My guess is that you could sell an eBook for 50-60% of the hardback price, same release date, and make equal profit share. That's good for publishers, authors, and customers.

We just need to convince the publishing industry that higher numbers != greater profit.

[Crowl]

If it was purely about sales then that might be the case, but publishers seem to look at hardback releases as a premium product that is just as much about the marketing as anything else, whether its getting more people into a shop in general in the case of the really big books or drawing attention to the paperback release and/or back catalogue of the author in question. Until the ebook market gets bigger it just doesn't seem like they would rush to change things for its benefit, especially if it lost out minor benefits like people buying the hardback to get it early and then later on also picking up the ebook too.

Anyway, I have more than enough books I already have or want that I think I can survive if they don't rush to give us sensible prices for books as soon as they come out and to be honest I find them trying to charge more than paperbook prices for back catalogue releases on ebook more of a pain than this stuff.