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Publishing Expo: Beyond the Price Wars: What’s Really Happening in Book and EBook Retailing
March 8, 2010 | 3:44 pm
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By Paul Biba
Michael Norris, Senior Analyst, Simba Information. Independent analyst and has no stake in the information.
57% of adults buy at least one trade book and 42% buy no books. Of those who buy 55% buy paperback and 48% buy hardcover. The vast majority of people who buy books only buy 1 to 5 books/year. Main channel is bookstores, followed by “other” such as Walmart, Costco, etc., online is third and book club fourth. For independent bookstores majority of customers buy more than 5 books/year.
Price sensitivity and books. Surveyed Kindle hardware owners: overall message was that if they can’t get the books they want from a publisher they won’t buy the book or will buy a different book. It seems to be easy to get riled up about a price change in the abstract, but when comes to the reality most people who really want the book will buy it. People strongly objected to iTunes selective pricing when introduced last April and it didn’t effect their sales.
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Comments:
I must disagree that iTunes price increase has not affected sales. In fact, the price increase has resulted in a significant slow down in overall sales. Warner Music Group has admitted a slow down. Check out http://bit.ly/b06woC
With physical books I generally pay no attention to the publisher. The difference between the quality, and price, of the worst mainstream publisher and the best just isn’t large.
The difference in quality is larger with ebooks, and now some publishers want to charge more than others. Also some publishers produce more back list ebooks than others. This is the internet age, where all these differences are apparent to the ebook buyer. Sales wil be effected, although the quality of authors still matters the most. It is in fact the authors with the high price, low quality and no back list, publishers who will be loosing the most in the long run.
There seems to be a glaring weak link in your e-book coverage and it’s in the shape of an apple .
The majority of stories here that touch upon Apple either tout PC industry misinformation, show hostility against the company, or are simply flat out wrong. Like Michael, I post corrections, but it doesn’t seem to affect your continued faulty Apple coverage. How disappointing given how thorough I’ve been finding your site for e-book information. However, after five or more error filled Apple stories, I’m honestly beginning to wonder what else you folks aren’t getting right.
About the only books I buy are gifts. I choose books I think my recipients will like, and (since they are gifts) hardcover is a plus, despite the higher price. If I’m organized, I’ll buy from Amazon, but if I’m running late, I’ll pop into my local bookstore.
For my own purposes, I get my public domain books from Project Gutenberg, and my new books from the library.
— asotir
“Surveyed Kindle hardware owners: overall message was that if they can’t get the books they want from a publisher they won’t buy the book or will buy a different book. It seems to be easy to get riled up about a price change in the abstract, but when comes to the reality most people who really want the book will buy it.”
Aren’t those 2 sentences saying directly opposite things?