New Dan Brown book, cheaper to buy paper version!

[craig_w]

Hey,

With all the fuss around the new Dan Brown book and the ebook versions, I thought I'd check out the costs, for the hardback version its as follows:

Amazon: £4.99!!!
WHSmith: £9.49

The ebook version that requires no paper or manufacturing processes to make:

WHSmith: £13.29!
Waterstones: £9.49

So tell me, how does this work!! I know Amazon will heavily discount such a big release, but surely there must be more money to be made in books from the ebook versions??

As far as I can see, no one has learnt from the music industry's internet fiasco with the pirates, they seem to what us to go on the internet and download them for free

rant over..

Craig

[kennyc]

True, but you can't get it any cheaper than checking it out from your local library.

[carlobee]

hmm.. not so sure about that though. still planning to buy the book.. as soon as i will be, that's the time i'll be diggin in more of its costs.

[Crowl]

Some of the supermarkets started listing the book at £5 and amazon responded to them, it is treated as being a loss-leader by them, so there's no wonder that the paper version is currently the cheaper option.

On waterstones its the same price for both versions currently as the hardback version is being discounted by a higher margin.

[astra]

It is really funny.
Do they think they can browbeat us into not using ebooks because they overprice them? Keep on dreaming publishers...

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by astra

It is really funny.
Do they think they can browbeat us into not using ebooks because they overprice them? Keep on dreaming publishers...

An odd book to label this accusation really, its been widely available for under $10 and £10 from various sources, this one hasn't been overpriced, it simply hasn't seen as much cutthroat price-cutting as the paper version thats all.

[astra]

Originally Posted by Crowl

it simply hasn't seen as much cutthroat price-cutting as the paper version thats all.

You make it sound as if paper version was reduced in price for unknown malicious reason to be sold at loss out of publishers and writer pockets. Maybe they were just generous and wanted us to have paper version at loss for themselves but give us a chance to read the book!?! What do you think? Does it sound plausible?

Whoever was selling the book at £4.99 was making profit, ebook is much cheaper to produce than paper, thus is could be reduced even more in price and still be a profitable sale.

[bokbilling]

Originally Posted by astra

Whoever was selling the book at £4.99 was making profit, ebook is much cheaper to produce than paper, thus is could be reduced even more in price and still be a profitable sale.

I very much doubt that those stores/chains selling the book for £4.99 is making a profit. I can't tell for sure as I'm a bookseller in Sweden, but I know how much I have to pay for the book (paper) and I would definitely go out of business in a month or two if I tried those prices.

The difference in price between the paperversion and ebookversion are more to do with the fact that there's not enough people buying ebooks yet. When that evens out I predict the prices will too and eventually the ebookprices will be lower. As they well should.

(And by the way, if you bought a Sony Prs 300 or 600 from Waterstones in England you would get the ebook for free. Doesn't get any cheaper than that. But Dan Brown still gets paid, so who is making the loss? The publisher, the bookseller, or ultimately the bookbuyer? I'll give you one guess. )

Take care,
Magnus

[deltop]

Originally Posted by astra

Whoever was selling the book at £4.99 was making profit, ebook is much cheaper to produce than paper, thus is could be reduced even more in price and still be a profitable sale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader

It's just like the Harry Potter novels. Once the series became a huge hit the next novels were often sold at a loss by large chain stores upon release (supermarkets such as Asda for example here in the uk), they do it just to get customers through the door. They more than make their money back via other purchases.

So yes very very popular releases such as this ARE often sold at a loss.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by deltop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader

It's just like the Harry Potter novels. Once the series became a huge hit the next novels were often sold at a loss by large chain stores upon release (supermarkets such as Asda for example here in the uk), they do it just to get customers through the door. They more than make their money back via other purchases.

So yes very very popular releases such as this ARE often sold at a loss.

+ + +


.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by astra

Whoever was selling the book at £4.99 was making profit, ebook is much cheaper to produce than paper, thus is could be reduced even more in price and still be a profitable sale.

No they weren't making a profit and as the handy link in one of the subsequent post somebody has provided you with the definition of the words loss leader.

[astra]

It is all nice and good and well presented theory. Moreover, most likely it does work wonders for big supermarkets. However, back to reality:
Amazon.co.uk
It is highly unrealistic that they may hope it is going to work for them as well as it does for high street shops. 74% off!!!

Sorry for being very sceptical about it.

Another point. Low popularity, hence low selling volumes, hence higher price issue.
We are talking about e-Book. Once it has been created, there is zero cost involved in reproducing it. Zero. You cannot apply to it the same theory as you apply to any other product out there. There is no loss of profit for making 100 items but being able to sell only 20, thus having high price to compensate. Even s/w requires a blank CD to burn it on.

[fugazied]

Stupid stupid publishers is basically the reason why. As astra pointed out, traditional economic market theory (greater demand, higher selling volumes can allow lower price) do not apply with 'virtual' products like ebooks.

There is no reason that an ebook should cost more than a paper book other than publisher and retailer stupidity.

[Superlucky]

Originally Posted by fugazied

Stupid stupid publishers is basically the reason why. As astra pointed out, traditional economic market theory (greater demand, higher selling volumes can allow lower price) do not apply with 'virtual' products like ebooks.

There is no reason that an ebook should cost more than a paper book other than publisher and retailer stupidity.

I would imagine that loss leaders don't work as well in a digital environment. It doesn't sound that stupid.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by astra

It is all nice and good and well presented theory. Moreover, most likely it does work wonders for big supermarkets. However, back to reality:
Amazon.co.uk
It is highly unrealistic that they may hope it is going to work for them as well as it does for high street shops. 74% off!!!

Sorry for being very sceptical about it.

It would work to a certain extent with amazon since they would be recommending other books to you at that time and also they probably wouldn't want people to think of anywhere other than amazon when it came to books either.