A new book is available for pre-order, and here is the Amazon pricing:
Kindle – $26.35 Hardcover – $19.23 Audible – $27.61 Audio CD – $30.00
All logic suggests the electronic version should be cheaper. Prices like this will likely drive me, and others, to piracy.
Yes, the value of the book is what I am willing to pay for it, but I feel insulted by the pricing structure offered time and again.
>E-books’ declining popularity may signal that publishing, while not immune to technological upheaval, will weather the tidal wave of digital technology better than other forms of media, like music and television.
And only until near the end of the article does it reveal the actual reason why print is far from dead.
>Higher e-book prices may also be driving readers back to paper.
The publishers put print books on life support by artificially inflating the prices of e-books. They are just delaying the inevitable in my opinion.
In my opinion, this isn't going to hold up long-term. Amazon makes a good point when they say that publishers will make more money (in the form of more copies sold) at a lower price, and I think that major publishers will eventually come around (either that or they will perish). To some degree, digital distribution obviates the need for traditional publishers, and as more popular authors start ditching publishers entirely, I predict that eBook prices will gradually drop, and print books will resume their decline.
Especially since ebooks are small enough that you can download them in seconds.
I love getting juiced for out-of-print books, especially ones that are in that gray area where the author and his direct descendants are dead and buried, but copyright lives on.
I sort of am although I realize the only net difference between buying a very cheap used book and downloading a free copy is to make a bookseller some place and the USPS a few pennies each.
I can't imagine going to the trouble of ordering a used copy and getting it digitized though.
I think fiction published need to look at what is happening in Free to Play games and Kickstarter if they want the industry to survive.
Oh oh.. thats my Startup idea. Nobody steal it. Kickstarter for fiction. You go and read the first chapter and pay to get the rest of the book written. A good author should be able to raise 50-100k which should be enough to get a good story pumped out.
I keep looking at GitBook as well, although I don't see much on there I'm interested in reading.
Speaking of which, I'm disappointed that audiobooks weren't broken out in the story - anecdotally, I know more people that listen to Audible/audiobooks regularly than use a Kindle (somewhat naturally, since most people carry a phone everywhere). So I sort of question the implication that people are returning to paper when a rising category has been excluded.
E-book pricing is a bit of a mess in the EU. Many countries have a reduced rate of VAT on print books, For example, in the UK it's 0%, in France it's 5.5%.
However, the EU deems e-books an electronic service and has ruled that they should be charged at the full rate of VAT, not the reduced rate applied to print books. It's pretty ridiculous really.
In fact, France and Luxembourg have been applying reduced VAT rates to e-books for some time leading to the EU Court of Justice to rule that they are in breach of EU rules and must apply the full rate of VAT to e-books. A very consumer-unfriendly policy.
You get the same book either way. Why should it be cheaper. You could even argue that instant download to your kindle is a convenience worth paying for.
But it's silly that Amazon is selling them for more. Often times much more.
But it's silly that Amazon is selling them for more. Often times much more.
Not by choice. Amazon tried to set some reasonable price points, and the big five refused to play ball (remember their conspiracy with Apple?), ultimately renegotiating their contracts to agency pricing. Which is why so many of their books cost so much now.
Because it's not being printed in China on slices of dead tree, shipped across the Pacific Ocean, shipped to a wholesaler, shipped to a retailer, sitting on expensive retail shelf space for months, and then (if it doesn't sell) being shipped back the other way for full credit?
Why should it not be cheaper?
If customers don't get their ebooks cheaper from the major publishing houses, they'll get them cheaper from someone else.