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10 reason why ebooks should be priced lower than paper books
May 18, 2009 | 10:06 am
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By Paul Biba
Perfect timing following Joe Wikert’s posting below. Michael Pastore has an article up at Epublishers Weekly about ebook pricing. Here’s an excerpt. Read the rest at his site:
10 Reasons To Sell Ebooks At Low Prices
1. Ebooks cost less to produce. Yes, of course we know that ebooks are not free to produce. But we also know that ebooks do not need to be printed, do not need to be shipped to distributors and booksellers. Ebooks eliminate the problem of book returns, overstock storage, and book shredding — thus adding even more savings to the publisher’s accounts beyond the cost of printing.
2. Ebooks cannot be re-sold. The ebook edition of a work makes it impossible for book buyers to get some money back on their purchases.
3. Often, ebooks from big-name publishers cannot be loaned, even between members of the same family. Which means: an ebook buyer might need to purchase multiple copies of the same ebook.
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Comments:
Some comments:
As I mentioned under another post, claiming a book has added value because it can be resold is a lot like saying a baseball has added value because it can also break windows. You don’t buy a book to resell it… the only thing people should be buying in order to resell is stocks.
Huh? Is Mike suggesting that my nice little PDA is a lousy e-book reader? Or that this has anything to do with the price of an e-book in China? Either way, I disagree. The biggest value of e-books is the wealth of devices, not just dedicated readers, that they can be read on. If someone spends a lot of money on a reader, that’s up to them. But those of us who read on multipurpose devices deserve low-priced books as much as someone who can throw $500 at a dedicated reader… maybe more (I don’t have $500 to throw at a dedicated reader!).
With respect to Beckett, I’ve maintained that he’s made the wrong conclusions. People aren’t reading significantly less… they’re reading differently. Especially online, something that no one has accurately quantified yet. But if his only point is that a book, being a less popular commodity today, should be priced lower, I’ll allow him the point.
4. While paper books are virtually indestructible, ebooks tend to suffer from the vagaries of technology and associated businesses. Ebooks I purchased years ago for the Microsoft Reader are no longer available for conversion to a more modern format, while paper books over a hundred years old still grace my shelves.
@GJN:
Match?
If you’ve ever watched your possessions go up in a fire, or ruined by water (often happens after a fire), you might not consider printed books that “indestructible.”
On the other hand, e-books, when stored in a proper format (something more universally long-lasting, like… I dunno… epub, maybe), could last much longer than a hundred years.
@Steve:
Steve, we agree completely on item 5 … I should have been more clear: when I wrote “ebook reading devices” I did not mean “dedicated ebook reading devices” such as the Kindle. I mean: any device (other than a computer) that can read ebooks.
It’s great that your PDA doubles as your ebook reader. I’m all for that; I think that is a much wiser investment than using a device that has one purpose only. I’ve written that dedicated ebook reading devices will one day be replaced by small computers with hi-res screens.
On point number 2., Steve writes:
That’s not what I wrote. I did not claim that a book has added value because it can be resold.
I wrote that if an ebook cannot be resold, then it should be sold at a lower price than the same book (or ebook) that can be resold.
Steve, can you clarify what you mean by: “You don’t buy a book to resell it.”
I buy a book to read and enjoy it, and to learn from
it. But if the book disappoints me, and I plan never to read that book again, why shouldn’t I resell the book? … That seems like a viable alternative to leaving the book unread forever on my dusty shelves.
Michael Pastore
50 Benefits of Ebooks
Steve, “resale value” is a consideration when people buy many things, even if they do not intend to resell them at that moment. How well a car keeps its resale value over time, for instance, is one factor that consumers often take into account when buying a new car. They aren’t buying it as an investment—they’re buying it to use, but knowing how much they’re likely to be able to get for it if they decide they no longer want it is something they think about..
When I buy a paper book, I know I can turn around and sell it at a used bookstore to recoup a bit of the money I paid for it. Probably not a great deal of it; I suspect I’d be lucky to get 1/4 of cover price (as the used book stores have to make a profit selling it at 1/2 of cover), but at least that’s a few bucks in my pocket. I don’t buy it intending to resell it, but knowing that I can has a bearing on how much money I’m willing to pay for it.
It’s hard to believe anyone is even arguing about this point anymore. E-books as currently constituted should sell for less than print books because they have demonstrably less value. They cannot be resold, lent or donated to charity. Almost all are locked down with a DRM which creates a dependency on a hardware or software vendor to continue supporting a particular format. That is, unlike a print book, e-books can reach a point of forced obsolescence. And some, though not all, require the additional purchase of an expensive piece of hardware, such as the Sony Reader, to be read at all.
The point is not whether e-book buyers deserve or need a discount or whether authors or publishers or retailers want more money. The point is that the product is a lesser value than a competing substitute product. Why are bus tickets cheaper than plane tickets? Why are frozen peas cheaper than fresh, organic peas? Because consumers perceive them as less valuable than the available substitute.