Returns really aren’t as big a problem in the world of hardbacks, though. Unlike mass market paper, where books are stripped and destroyed, hardbacks are sent back and remaindered (this is where those sales books on the Barnes and Noble racks come from). If the cost of a hardback is $1.50, even remaindered returns are break-even, so the full cost of the printing is pretty much the $1.50. So, an eBook earning equal profit to the hardback should come in a bit less than $1.50 less than that hardback (a bit less because the $1.50 doesn’t include shipping costs…let’s say, another $0.50 per book).

For small publishers like me, who use print on demand technology, costs are higher and returns are a huge issue (for those small publishers who accept returns). Which is why I charge so much less for eBooks than for paper.

Isn’t entitlement an interesting word, by the way. It seems to have become co-opted into political speech. Entitlement is what your opponents think people deserve. What you think they deserve is rights. In my opinion, customers are completely rational to look for lower prices. If Wal-Mart charges $10 for the same jeans you can buy somewhere else for $20, why shouldn’t you shop at Wal-Mart. Authors are also completely rational to hope for higher royalties. Who would hope for lower royalties, after all. Price is a compromise between what buyers are willing to pay and what sellers are willing to take. It just doesn’t seem to me to have a huge moral component (except in cases of national disaster, etc. where it’s tacky to charge a fortune for fresh water, for example).

Rob Preece
Publisher

Rich — Teleread and others have definitely covered that ground before. My post was more about my own indignation at this hack Preston calling his readers “entitled” for using basic common sense.

Bill — I agree. I really think Macmillan’s making a mistake. But Amazon made a bigger one with the way they handled it.

PilotBob — I know, right? Preston sounds like a spoiled little kid.

Elizabeth — That’s a good point. I do think Amazon has good intentions. It’s just their execution is so entirely hamfisted sometimes. Makes it very hard to like them.

Bruce, HeavyG, Sandir — Agreed.

If publishers had said they were raising the price of ebooks to improve quality or pay the authors higher royalties I would have no problem with paying more for ebooks.

Instead every time I see a higher-priced ebook from one of the big six publishers I will remember the contempt those in the publishing world have for their customers.

Actually, the real sense of entitlement is being displayed by Preston (and other authors and publishers) who feel that their customers have an OBLIGATION to pay them whatever amount of money they ask for.

Enron.

Not a single mainstream publisher, to my knowledge, ever bothered to do that. For most of that decade, they dismissed ebooks as not having any real economic future–and did so even after their sales percentages began growing in double digits.

Small wonder that, having slept through the revolution, they are now trying to reverse progress and force ebooks to fit into their antiquated business model–new wine in old bottles.

I’m sorry what? That quote from Preston proves that he knows nothing about economics. The “real price” of something is what the buyer is willing to pay.

for example, when you list your house at $300,000 that is not the “real” price. The “real” price is what you sell it at.

You can price your books at $30 all day long thinking that is the “real” price. But, if no one buys it at that price you’ve actually proven that ISN’T the real price.

BTW: My personal threshold for an ebook is $10. Anything over that I will just wait. There are plenty of great ebooks priced under $10 that I will happily buy and read.

BOb