A couple of points, though. (1) Consider the difference between paperback and hardback. Hardbacks come with a bit of cardboard on the sides. Production cost difference, trivial. Price difference, 5X (2) Consider the difference between mass market and trade paperback. I’m seeing a lot of trade paperback with pulp paper (not mine, of course, but a lot). Cost difference. Trivial or zero. Price difference 2X. So, cost is not really a driving factor in book pricing at the moment.

There are a lot of inefficiencies in the traditional book distribution market (don’t even get me started talking about returns). But here, too, the cost savings are easier to imagine than to capture. Consider the Kindle. At least for small publishers, Amazon’s pricing seems to capture most of the savings for them, leaving less to pass back to authors.

Bottom line, I agree that eBooks can be affordably priced although we face many of the same issues with distribution as do our paper brothers. But it really irks me when I hear people talk as if eBooks are an inferior product. They are not inferior, they are different. For some applications, they’re superior. For others, perhaps paper is superior.

Rob Preece
Publisher

Whatever the production costs are, if the consumer does not understand why they’re paying it, it doesn’t matter how fair your price is.

The sooner everyone in the biz addresses that, and makes the consumer understand that they are paying to support authors, not to buzz-saw trees and take up shelf space, the sooner we can get e-book pricing on-track at whatever point it should be.

Two ‘objects’ for lack of a better word. Both have costs associated with the writing, editing, layout etc. One has: computer/server storage cost. The other has: paper, ink, shipping boxes, people to load the shipping boxes, more shipping when a store runs out of stock, people to re-pack and send back the shipping boxes when a store does not sell all the copies, trucks to drive the shipping boxes to and fro on both ends, etc. It seems clear, to rational, average people, which costs more to make and why ebook fans resent the high, high prices for an object which costs more to produce and requires more work (e.g. format shifting) to read, and which cannot be lent, re-sold etc.

In some ways, eBooks provide greater value.

I think this is key: Instead of talking about e-books as if they are lesser creations compared to print, we should be emphasizing their portability, transportability, energy-saving, space-saving, reading versatility and flexibility, as what they are: Assets that print books cannot match.

Compared to print books in that way, it might be reasonable to say that printed books are the inferior product, and should cost less…

In contrast, eBooks don’t need to be stored. They’re always available from your Fictionwise, Amazon, Omnibook, or whatever account. You don’t need to worry about leaving them behind on the airplane when you fly. You don’t need to buy extra real estate to create libraries when entire libraries will fit on a flash card.

I’m not saying eBooks should cost more. I’m saying that the value proposition is unclear. In some ways, eBooks provide greater value. In others, paper does (if you’re the kind who lends books a lot, who resells, who decorates, or who gets caught in a blizzard and needs something to burn to keep warm).

Rob Preece
Publisher

I personally also don’t have much interest in POD, because I believe we need trees more than we need paper… but that’s me. At any rate, I’ve had very little call for printed versions of my books, so for now, I consider it a non-issue. Anyone with access to a computer, a cellphone, or a number of other electronic devices, can read an e-book. If you don’t want to print your material… you don’t have to. Consider calling it “exclusive” content, if it bothers people, and maybe they’ll come around.

I’d also love to see one format used, but like Rob, I provide multiple formats based on the demands of customers. I also evaluate those format sales each year, and can remove or replace formats as time goes by. I’d suggest every multi-format publisher do at least this, and maybe they’ll find they can winnow down their multiple formats to one or two in time.

This is the misperception that’s going to be difficult to overcome, that e-books are additional items with no costs involved, throw-ins after the money has been spent to produce the print version. Why don’t e-books count toward the cost of production? If you make an e-only book, are the editing and design costs free? Maybe e-books should be much more expensive, and cover all the costs of editing and design, etc., then the paper versions can be cheaper….

One thought on pricing…publishers set list prices. Retailers/distributors may choose to discount them. Thus, for example, Amazon offers some of my books at a discount to list. Fictionwise sometimes offers books for list price, but other times runs specials or micropay rebates. So, it’s not really the publisher who can determine whether the books are available for a common price.

Of course, the publisher can set suggested retail. BooksForABuck.com sets a highly affordable suggested retail which, I think we both agree, is an attractive feature for eBooks.

Rob Preece
Publisher

This isn’t to sell it to heavy-readers, but to the one-book-a-year crowd. That crowd is more likely to pick up a second book a year if there is extra content, or interactivity, or a linked discussion, or even (god forbid) – a multimedia package that let’s consumers buy every version of “The Da Vinci Code” – book, film, and audiobook, for one price. Not every book is a movie, but many are, and I don’t understand why book publishers and movie publishers don’t link up to sell their stuff in a package. Buy the book? Get the movie cheaper. Buy the movie? Get the book cheaper, etc.