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French e-book price suggestion: 30% under p-book
March 17, 2009 | 9:59 am
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By Paul Biba
Received the following email from Nicolas Gary:
I’m director of ActuaLitte.com. Few days ago, the minister Christine Albanel received a report about the price of ebook, written by Hervé Gaymard. He suggests that ebook price in France should be 30 % under the p-book’s price.
So nice, don’t you Think ? 
The report is here. Any of our readers want to attempt a translation or synopsis?
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Comments:
I would like to see a price of no greater then 9.99. It should be priced loser to that of music albums (at most). 30% sounds nice till you ask “of how much?”
66% does not look like a fair price to me. On the other hand, authors are usually way underpaid.
It is probably a good idea to have traditional publishers in a competition with e-only publishers. Only way to get prices down to a reasonable level.
Reasonable levels for p are dictated by production and handling overheads. For e, they should be primarily determined by fair revenues for authors plus editors.
Thus, as a reader, I feel that e should be in the order of 20% of p. As an author, I should feel likewise (it means that I still make much more than with p per unit).
Traditional publishers will not like that, because they still carry the p overhead with every publication, but will sell fewer p units due to e, so they will attempt to find a compromise that is much closer to p.
In Germany, we also have the positions of the sales outlets (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels). They even go as far as to suggest that traditional p stores should get a mandandory fraction from e sales that are done online, so they can survive.
Finally, there is the position of the e sales outlets, like Amazon. They are trying to build a new market for electronic documents, and the margins they make with the hardware (i.e. the Kindle) are laughable at the moment (despite high prices). So they would like to get every penny they can get without hurting sales. Amazon seems to do well at their current price level.
Format and rights: Customers should have a good reading experience while defending any IP rights in the books; thus there is a need for DRM.
One representative for publishers, authors and booksellers (good luck with that!) will join the ongoing discussion panel on the future IT law.
Data base harmonization: The same data base system (Onix) shall be used by all entities in the chain.
The price of books: The price reduction of 30% may be achieved partly through a VAT reduction for ebooks. The single sale price law will not apply to ebooks.
I argued this same point right here on this very blog:
http://www.teleread.com/2008/12/15/calculating-a-fair-price-for-e-books/
It’s simply the only way to make commercial ebooks competitive. Why would a customer pay full retail price for an ebook they can’t re-sell and often can’t read on every device they own, when they can get a mass market paperback of it for 1/3 the price?
As a consumer, I can’t pin down a single percentage that would be an acceptable price for an e-book, since the absolute price has to be factored in my consideration. Having said that, generally speaking, e-books at 70% of p-book prices is too high for me, especially given that I can routinely buy p-books at more than 30% off (Amazon, bestseller discounts, coupons, etc.). To me, about 50% off sounds about right for books that are available in either hardcover or trade paperback (this implies the e-book price decreases when a hardcover goes to paperback). For books that are available in mass-market, a lower percentage off would be acceptable since the p-book price itself is lower.
The other factor is DRM. I’ve had a Kindle for close to a year now and I can count the number of DRMed books that I’ve bought for it on one hand. DRM greatly reduces not only the number of books that I buy but also the price I’m willing to pay for them. I estimate that the average price of my Kindle purchases is in the neighborhood of 5 dollars, the cheapest being 50 cents (a Penguin Enriched E-book Classic) and the most expensive being about $8, which is pretty much my upper limit for a DRMed book.
Here is a somewhat literal traduction (please excuse my bad english)!
*Ebooks will cost 30% less than paper books.*
Interressing advice but far from being sufficient!
Yesterday, that’s how hervé Gaymard did present in a full session of the Conseil du livre (the famous “Book Parlement”) the comments from the Patio report workgroup. How to put it into action, under which conditions… 3 major axis have been extracted, in a synthesis presented by Christine Albanel.
*Formats and Rights management*
First, the reader should get a “confortable” reading experience in the respect of the rights owners. To reach this goal, we propose the usage of a portable format and right management system. Think DRM !
A list of technical requirements will be created to ease the change to the “digital era” of publishers and printers. In this working frame, a representing member of the book’s profession – good luck – and chosen by them, will get acquainted with Olivennes text and with the projected bill “Creation and Internet”. Law of which the profession was skipped to create this guide.
*Bring the databases closer*
Second point, on the databases. LivresHebdo is reporting that : “Every player in the book chain should adopt the Onix transmission standard”
Trying to get the databases closer is a mean to create a continuum. Electre will be pushed to front – there was no doubt on that one – by playing on the mean of funding, which should prevent from robbing someone in the process of the ebook distribution.
*Pricing of ebooks*
Last but not least from the customer perspective. Push for a legal offer financially attractive. The action breaks from the Lang law on unique pricing, which would no longer be applicable to ebooks. Ebooks should “work to have a bigger and more diversified offer, and get a significant reduction of the price compared to paperbooks : 30 % of the VAT included price”
The right owner are still the only captain in the choice of the book pricing. To get to this tiny reduction some propose a reduce VAT, which would be available though only in the “mid-term”