Penguin to publish new titles simultaneously as e-books

[AnemicOak]

So what's different than what they've been doing? Penguin's always been one of the highest priced ebook publishers. I guess this just means they'll offer every single title they bring out as opposed to almost every title like they already do.

Penguin is really bad for not lowering the price of a book when the paperback release comes out. Sometimes it takes over a year after the paperback release for the ebook price to drop from the hardcover equivalent.


Since it's unlikely that publishers will follow Baen's pricing at this time it'd be nice if they'd at least follow the lower pricing for ebooks someone like Simon & Schuster does.

[Onemack]

Originally Posted by M.H.

From today's Telegraph:



It is good that they are releasing ebooks but I don't see how they can justify them being at the same cost as pbooks.

Why should they justify their pricing? They are in the market place and they will have to react according to their sales figures. Dont forget no profit = no Penguin book company. Personally I don't buy ebooks based on their low price but on their ease of purchase, the currently low prices are a bonus, as is the fact that some titles are impossible to readily find in bookshops without spending a great deal of time and effort.

John

[Donnageddon]

Originally Posted by Onemack

some titles are impossible to readily find in bookshops without spending a great deal of time and effort.

John

Well, I am not sure how hard it is in Canberra, but in Baghdad I can see how there might be a bit of an inconvenience involved.

[M.H.]

Originally Posted by Onemack

Why should they justify their pricing? They are in the market place and they will have to react according to their sales figures. Dont forget no profit = no Penguin book company. Personally I don't buy ebooks based on their low price but on their ease of purchase, the currently low prices are a bonus, as is the fact that some titles are impossible to readily find in bookshops without spending a great deal of time and effort.

John

Where I live, any ebook that I have been interested in has been easily available as a pbook but not the other way around and my comments are based on that.

If an ebook costs the same as a pbook I will buy the pbook and then sell it after I have read it. That is not good for the publisher who may possibly have lost an additional sale.

If the ebook is cheaper then after I have read the ebook I keep it (with DRM I don't legally have any choice). This way the publisher benefits. I would suggest that the difference in price should be at least equal to the second-hand value of the pbook. For many pbooks that may only be £1 but that would be enough for me to buy the ebook over the pbook and I'm sure the publisher would still be making more profit and would be keeping second-hand books off the market.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by M.H.

If an ebook costs the same as a pbook I will buy the pbook and then sell it after I have read it. That is not good for the publisher who may possibly have lost an additional sale.

If the ebook is cheaper then after I have read the ebook I keep it (with DRM I don't legally have any choice). This way the publisher benefits. I would suggest that the difference in price should be at least equal to the second-hand value of the pbook. For many pbooks that may only be £1 but that would be enough for me to buy the ebook over the pbook and I'm sure the publisher would still be making more profit and would be keeping second-hand books off the market.

interesting additional point. i wonder if the publishers have thought of that. you should write to penguin and tell them how you feel.

[Prospect]

If the retail prices for ebooks were determined by the production cost per sold unit, then the prices should probably be much higher for ebooks than for pbooks because of the convertion costs and - relative to the paperbooks - the extremely low volume.

Production costs are however only one of many factors when the price is set. This is particularly so when it comes to products consisting mainly of IPR (ebooks, software or heavily branded items)

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Publishers still think of their sales in terms of per-unit costs, and use that to set prices and determine profits. E-books clearly skew that model, but it may be that Penguin has decided for the time being that an e-book is most similar to a hardback, i.e., a limited popularity item, that they feel they can price highly to make their profit.

Regardless of the actual or perceived costs involved, it's still a good idea to contact Penguin. Informing them of your opinion of the price of their e-books is the best way for them to gather data on what the public wants, which may influence any future adjustment of their pricing plan. And the more people who respond, the more Penguin is likely to consider e-books popularity to be higher than they expected, and a possible candidate for lower pricing to drive higher sales.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

FYI, I just fired off an e-mail to Penguin, too:

I recently read an article in the Telegraph stating that Penguin would be releasing e-books concurrently to print releases. As a reader (and writer/publisher) of e-books, I applaud this decision, and I hope that Penguin will expand its plan to all of its lines in the near future.

A point I'd like to suggest, though, is that Penguin may want to reconsider the pricing for those e-books. The article suggests that e-book prices will be the same as newly-released books, which will generally be hardbacks. I have discovered through my own research that e-book readers do not believe e-books should cost the same as hardbacks, due to the significantly lower costs in production, storage, transportation, and maintenance that e-books enjoy. Such pricing may serve to alienate Penguin to many of the customers it hopes to attract, e-book readers, and readers in general, and I'm sure that is not Penguin's intent.

Although you will certainly manage to make sales through some early adopters, I think Penguin would be better served with lower prices for their e-books, perhaps at the level of paperbacks, or even lower (for the same economy of pricing points I made above), to earn significant sales from e-books and make it worth the publisher's while. Speaking for myself, I would balk at an e-book priced at a hardback level, and even at a paperback level... but I have bought many e-books priced below paperback prices, a level that I consider much better suited to the medium.

I will also point out that I have managed healthy sales of my own e-books, which are priced below typical paperback sales. I have also seen a fivefold increase in sales from dropping my prices during promotions by as little as 20%.

I would appreciate your passing this message on to those in Penguin and/or Pearson Group who make these decisions. I wish Penguin great success in their endeavor, and hope to be a regular customer in the future.

Again, I encourage everyone else to write Penguin and make your voice heard.

[CCDMan]

Penguin's eBooks are going to tank faster then the Titanic sank. Nobody wants to pay the same for an eBook as the pBook. That's just bad business sense.

Clearly you have not been in business. There are only a few things that drive pricing:

1) Competition
2) Quality/Functionality
3) What the consumer is willing to pay

(2) is pretty much a non-issue for ebooks unless they really screw up something so that leaves (1) and (3).

Competition consists of paper books and other similar ebooks. Other similar ebooks (major publishers) mostly have a similar pricing structure. So that leaves paper books. There are back to the same 'ole dead horse of keeping/swapping/trading vs. ebook DRM and convenience. I will not argue that once again - clearly it depends on the buyer, as we see here from the differing opinions.

Then there is (3). Time will tell.

BTW, you will note the absence of "fair pricing" as a factor. There is no such thing in any business. You get what you can get, period. That's the system.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by CCDMan

Clearly you have not been in business. There are only a few things that drive pricing:

1) Competition
2) Quality/Functionality
3) What the consumer is willing to pay

(2) is pretty much a non-issue for ebooks unless they really screw up something so that leaves (1) and (3).

Competition consists of paper books and other similar ebooks. Other similar ebooks (major publishers) mostly have a similar pricing structure. So that leaves paper books. There are back to the same 'ole dead horse of keeping/swapping/trading vs. ebook DRM and convenience. I will not argue that once again - clearly it depends on the buyer, as we see here from the differing opinions.

Then there is (3). Time will tell.

BTW, you will note the absence of "fair pricing" as a factor. There is no such thing in any business. You get what you can get, period. That's the system.

As much as I'd like to believe otherwise, we're still too early in the development of the e-book market for consumers to drive pricing. Right now it's more of a "Hey! I've got ebook versions available. Come buy what I've produced!" stage. IOW, production-driven. Next, IIRC, comes sales-driven, where the producers - the publishers - crank out all sorts of stuff and expect their sales staff to sell, Sell, SELL! Finally, as the market matures, we'll reach marketing-driven, in which the customers' desires and tastes drive what the publishers release as ebooks.

Derek

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

BTW: Just thought I'd point out that the article indicates Penguin's intention of releasing e-books with print books only in certain lines... it does not suggest that it will be everything they print.

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

BTW: Just thought I'd point out that the article indicates Penguin's intention of releasing e-books with print books only in certain lines... it does not suggest that it will be everything they print.

And that's why I see them as being in production-driven mode. It's kind of like they're saying, "Oh! Look what we've produced! Come hither and marvel at our ingenuity! Buy LOTS of what we deign to produce!"

But yes, I'm eager for some of their titles, so if those titles are chosen, I'll probably buy them.

Derek

[lee1234]

Someone should write to Penguin and ask them to lower their e-book price.

[lee1234]

By the way, does anyone know what format their ebooks will use?

[Moonraker]

I have recently purchased an ebook on the Penguin UK site:

http://www.penguin.co.uk/static/cs/u...stepguide.html

It seems they have Microsoft, Palm or Adobe Reader formats at the moment.

Their catalogue is quite small - 195 books and many are PD.

Does anyone know why I have to use Internet Explorer to download DRM'd ebooks? It seems Firefox is not acceptable on any site including Fictionwise and my library.