guardian.co.uk— Publishers are facing an uncertain time in the digital world – but increasing the prices of their ebooks is a retrograde step
Dec 23, 2011View in Crawl 4
Same here. I must say that I'm usually an avid reader (although that varies depending on how much time I have) and there's nothing like an actual book in your hands.
I love my kindle and ebooks but the prices of them shouldn't even be half of what the hardcopy is. When you buy an ebook they simply give you a copy of a file. No ink, book binding, paper cost involved. I would imagine that is a large part of the cost of hardcopy you don't have to worry about with ebooks.
you might think that, but in truth the total cost to print, bind, ship and put a book on a store self is a fraction of it's sale price, about $3 on hardcover and and less than $1 on paperback. compare that to the 30% take Apple demands, and you see that costs are not going to be much lower, if at all, for the publisher.
If the authors sold their own books at 99 cents as ebooks, they'd still get as much money as they make off a $9.90 paperback. Unfortunately they don't get to reserve their rights for electronic distribution in a book deal.
My offer is 2.49 for an electronic version of a book that has been published as a paperback, 3.99 for one that is more recently available only as hardcover. I refuse to buy above those levels. Love, your customer.
One of the more interesting developments I've noticed recently in Ebook pricing is that they can be adjusted very easily to suit the demand. The publisher may insist on $14.99 for a certain new release and then after a few days if sales are lagging they can drop it to, say, $12.99 - without any notice to the previous buyers of course.
I've learned that it can pay to wait a while before ordering (much less pre-ordering) new releases if you want save a few bucks now and then.....and of course the more people who wait means lower apparent initial demand, possibly resulting in lowered prices after a week or so. Some of these new e-pricing tactics can cut both ways.
I was going to get my girlfriend a Nook, but once I looked at the prices of eBooks compared to their physical counter-parts, I was like "WTF is the point?"
It's ok. Consumers will eventually teach them a lesson when they stop buying eBooks and readers.
It's a cartel, which is why it's being investigated by the EU. And it's one of the consequence of your beloved capitalism along with all the other s**t that's effecting the world.
There's no maybe about it. Capitalism mainly sucks unless you're one of the lucky ones.
cranelakeDec 23, 2011Submitter
Never understood why ebooks that don't need to be produced, stored or distributed cost more than real books.
Should have known Apple were involved.
anomaly100Dec 23, 2011
Same here. I must say that I'm usually an avid reader (although that varies depending on how much time I have) and there's nothing like an actual book in your hands.
chillpill4yaDec 23, 2011
took the words out of my mouth. then again the next few generations probably wont know what a book is anyways.
wilke2000Dec 23, 2011
Because under the market system, prices don't reflect resource consumption, but rather, demand.
mawdsDec 23, 2011
And they wonder why people turn to piracy.
lilbambiDec 23, 2011
Gotta love this comment: http://preview.tinyurl.com/cxcft8s
grungegbunnyDec 23, 2011
I love my kindle and ebooks but the prices of them shouldn't even be half of what the hardcopy is. When you buy an ebook they simply give you a copy of a file. No ink, book binding, paper cost involved. I would imagine that is a large part of the cost of hardcopy you don't have to worry about with ebooks.
TomHanks4Dec 24, 2011
you might think that, but in truth the total cost to print, bind, ship and put a book on a store self is a fraction of it's sale price, about $3 on hardcover and and less than $1 on paperback. compare that to the 30% take Apple demands, and you see that costs are not going to be much lower, if at all, for the publisher.
o3manDec 24, 2011
Authors are greedy yo! They should sell ebooks for 99 cents each to us poor.
ninhDec 26, 2011
If the authors sold their own books at 99 cents as ebooks, they'd still get as much money as they make off a $9.90 paperback. Unfortunately they don't get to reserve their rights for electronic distribution in a book deal.
ninhDec 26, 2011
My offer is 2.49 for an electronic version of a book that has been published as a paperback, 3.99 for one that is more recently available only as hardcover. I refuse to buy above those levels. Love, your customer.
brucealmightyDec 23, 2011
One of the more interesting developments I've noticed recently in Ebook pricing is that they can be adjusted very easily to suit the demand. The publisher may insist on $14.99 for a certain new release and then after a few days if sales are lagging they can drop it to, say, $12.99 - without any notice to the previous buyers of course.
I've learned that it can pay to wait a while before ordering (much less pre-ordering) new releases if you want save a few bucks now and then.....and of course the more people who wait means lower apparent initial demand, possibly resulting in lowered prices after a week or so. Some of these new e-pricing tactics can cut both ways.
vanzant38Dec 23, 2011
They can charge whatever they want to charge, I'm not paying it.
agmlauncherDec 23, 2011
I was going to get my girlfriend a Nook, but once I looked at the prices of eBooks compared to their physical counter-parts, I was like "WTF is the point?"
It's ok. Consumers will eventually teach them a lesson when they stop buying eBooks and readers.
wilke2000Dec 23, 2011
It's not a swindle, it's called "the price system."
If you don't like it, then maybe you don't like capitalism.
GoldiedustDec 24, 2011
It's a cartel, which is why it's being investigated by the EU. And it's one of the consequence of your beloved capitalism along with all the other s**t that's effecting the world.
There's no maybe about it. Capitalism mainly sucks unless you're one of the lucky ones.
wilke2000Dec 24, 2011
"my beloved capitalism"
That's your bias. Admittedly, the statement was a bit of a provocation, but you got me wrong.