Comments on: Ebook pricing insanity

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:16:42 +0000

It’s insane! Just get it at the library, and read it there.

No need to pay for books.

I would be glad to pay 60% of the hard copy price. No more, considering there is no cost of printing, distribution, no pollution, etc…

Neither is there any of these costs to me at the library. Author misses out though, but if the publisher doesn’t care, and clearly they do not, then why should I?

Authors should bypass the publishers and go directly to iBooks (and Kindle if you are into weak e-readers that can’t function as a real ‘tablet’ (iPad)).

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Thu, 28 May 2009 05:04:05 +0000

Absolutely. If they want to be that insulting, then they don’t get paid for any version.

By: Richard Askenase

Richard Askenase — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:00:54 +0000

The whole pricing issue is a travesty. I think the Amazon forum $9,99 boycott and tagging of titles is the way to go. I.e.- we won’t buy an e-book OR THE PHYSICAL BOOK, until the ebook price is less than the print edition. If the publishers wait too long on this, they will go the way of newspapers. Soyanara!

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:52:45 +0000

Absolute minimum rating anywhere else it is priced horribly, too, of course.

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:51:30 +0000

Anyway, I said what I thought about it at Amazon. I would encourage others to do the same on the Year’s Best SF 14, if they feel so inclined.

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Wed, 27 May 2009 15:07:02 +0000

Ok, so they are nuts.

Anyone keen can buy two paperbacks, destroy one, put it into a document feeder scanner, sell the other one, and come out ahead of $14.99 there.

In fact, given an anthology, you can probably source a lot of the other stories pristinely (and some are free online) so OCR/proofreading would be less in this case.

Bet no-one is game to own up to making this policy.

Why would you encourage people to do it themselves, like this?

By: ~Brian

~Brian — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:16:44 +0000

This is just one of many Harper Collins (EOS) titles that have been getting this treatment. They have been putting out all kinds of ebooks at $14.99 that have a $7.99 print counterpart since around the beginning of the year.

Questions about this (from various Mobile Readers) have either been left unanswered or answered with a message that $14.99 is the correct price.

By: Tony Rabig

Tony Rabig — Wed, 27 May 2009 04:22:32 +0000

Blue,

Doesn’t seem likely, does it? But I’ve seen quite a few ebooks where the pricing on the ebook edition doesn’t drop to the print edition price for weeks or months. Did all those editions of Year’s Best SF have equal pricing the day of release until the new one? I dunno. But the pricing of Year’s Best SF 14 isn’t unique.

As to unfamiliarity — for years, ebook sales have been minute by comparison to print sales, and my guess would be that a number of publishers have regarded the ebook as something that might bring in a few more sales and a few extra dollars, but nothing really significant. The print edition is where it’s at, and where it’s gonna stay. And then overnight comes the Kindle, and the ebook gets more press in a few months than it seems to have had in the last decade. And soon after that the comment (was it Bezos or some other Amazon spokesman within the last month or two?) that the Kindle edition makes up about a third of a title’s sales at Amazon when both print and Kindle editions are available. The ebook isn’t an afterthought any more, and the ground is shakier now.

My guess, anyway.

Bests,

–tr

By: Blue Tyson

Blue Tyson — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:56:20 +0000

Tony,

That would seem to be very unlikely, given every other edition has been the same pricing.

How can they suddenly get ‘unfamiliar’ after doing it for 14 years? That doesn’t make any sense.

By: Tony Rabig

Tony Rabig — Wed, 27 May 2009 03:43:03 +0000

The only way I can see it making sense (and the pricing of SF 14 is by no means unique) is if the publisher regards the ebook as a threat to the profitability of the print edition and is pricing the ebook to push consumers toward the print edition. With the print edition, the publisher may believe itself to be on familiar ground, while not being sure about this ebook thing at all. So…

Bests,

–tr

By: Brad Vertrees

Brad Vertrees — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:37:24 +0000

Why on earth would the ebook edition of this book be priced so much higher than the print edition? I think the answer lies in a fundamental disconnect between these large publishing houses and the consumers they are trying to attract. Also, there’s a deep misunderstanding within these publishing houses about where ebooks fit into the larger picture of publishing and literature.

By: David L.

David L. — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:15:15 +0000

@caleb: I won’t steal something just because I think the price is unfair. I don’t think my grocery store’s price on whole-wheat is all that great, but I’m not about to shop-lift. I’ll just buy the books that are fairly priced and hope that others do the same and that publishers get the message.

By: caleb

caleb — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:51:36 +0000

Tell the market your demands aren’t being met; Pirate it!