Poll: How cheap should ebooks be?

[alz]

Reading ebooks has worked better for me than I expected, but I don't think they're worth the same as a paperback version.

Here's the question:
If the paperback version of a book costs $15, what would you be willing to pay for the ebook version?

alz

[Dr.Gibbs]

Since you're not really paying for the paper, I'd say if it's a published book the eBook should cost about the same. It's the text you're buying, not the materials that were used to print it.

I disagree. You pay @ $25 for a hardcover, @ $13 for a trade paperback and @ $8 for a regular paperback. There's a different pricing point at each level. By your logic, the same text in a regular paperback is worth less than that in a hardcover. I think an e-book would be a step below paperback. It's just a program, and since I doubt very many authors turn in paper manuscripts as opposed to word document files, or some other type of document file, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to convert those files into e-books. I'm not willing to pay as much for an ebook as I would for a regular book.

[AxiMonkey]

I disagree with Dr.Gibbs. You *are* paying for the paper when you buy the book. You're paying for the paper, the ink, the binding, the glue, the cover (hard and soft), the marketing, the book signings, everything.....
That being said, I also think the author shouldn't have to take hit when their hard work is distributed without paper.

If an actuall book goes for $15 (although, I don't see many of those), I think the eBook should go for about 13. I know that it's not 2 dollars worth of materials but the incentive to get the electronic version should be there. Less of an impact to the environment, let materials needed....all kinds of good stuff.

Dr. Gibbs where are you comming from? I agree that an artist should be paid for his work but the publisher has a lot less tied up in the process when the book is not printed. Yes there is some over head to be covered but come on. The price of paper backs is out of control...If I have to pay 8 or 9 bucks for a paper back I would rather spend an extra 13 or so and get a Hard Back. E-books will never repalce a good old book but they sure are convient on a plane or anywhere away from home. And you can bet there are very few book writers getting rich these days.

[RacerX2oo3]

This is a trend that is very disturbing to me. Any book publisher who is not willing to discount e-books is just just plain ripping off the buyer.

It cost's the publisher practically nothing to put out a book in e-book format. This means that every e-book sold is pure profit to a publisher. And since the author is only getting a set price per unit sold the publisher is pocketing a huge profit for doing basically nothing.

The price of an e-book should cover the authors per unit payment a fixed percentage profit say 10% for the publisher, and whatever markup the retailer adds.

price has pretty much nothing to do with the supplier's cost, except that the price is guaranteed to be more.

The cost of the materials in a paperback is probably like 50 cents, while materials for hardcovers probably cost $3.00, give or take. actually both of those [totally uninformed] estimates might be high come to think of it.

anyway, assuming that the difference in cost is just $2.50, it's pretty clear that the retail price isn't strongly based on cost when the paperback goes for $10 and the hardcover for $25.

the materials cost is part of it, but what you're really paying for is extra durabilty and the more authoritative quality of the hardcover. in most cases you're also paying to have the text sooner, since generally speaking hardcovers come out before paperback editions, so that distorts the price a bit too.

anyway when you deduct the cost of the cost of materials and labor from the book prices, im sure there's a good hefty income margin left for the author and everybody else, and that's mostly what you're paying for.

i agree that ebooks should be cheaper, but the reason ebook prices typically match the list price is because they're selling us the ability to read the book on our PPCs, which the retailers and publishers apparently think nullifies any detraction of value due to not having a material book.

anyway some ebook prices are falling a little bit as there seem to be more sales (ebooks.com), but yes the list prices are pretty stagnant (and EXPENSIVE).

there's also the issue of ebooks possibly getting hacked and distributed online like mp3s and everything else, so the publishers are probably trying to milk us as much as possible until they're sure that ebooks are safe.


*waits for 30-yr veteran book publisher to come along and put above speculation out of its misery.*



This is just high school economics. the supplier will sell at the price at which revenue is maximized. cost is irrelevant, except as I already said, in the case where cost is more than income, because then no one will sell. there is no obligation to be "nice" or "fair" to consumers. if the price is high then it's because people will buy at that price and the subsequent income is more than the income the sellers might get if they sold at a lower price. if the price is low it's because the seller makes more money that way than if the price is high. welcome to capitalism.

i doubt ebooks are that profitable to begin with, even with such high prices, because the market for ebooks is so small right now. i mean, how many people own a PPC or other compatible handheld? when there are more of us prospective ebook buyers, the industry will be come more profitable, and more sellers will come in to try and make a fortune for themselves...when that happens prices will start to fall because of the competition.

[Dr.Gibbs]

It's no different than CD's, guys... sure, SOME of the cost of the product is the materials that were used to produce it, but most of it is creation, editing, marketing, and all kinds of other stuff that eBooks require just like the real thing.

Do you think it costs Microsoft $300 to produce a Windows CD? Of course not. You're paying for the development. It's an extreme example, but it's the same point.

If it makes you any happier, I'll say they should cost a few bucks less to make up for the materials... but, still, I don't think they should cost next to nothing just because there's no printing being done :p

[Dr.Gibbs]

On an added note, why do you think you can go to Wal-Mart or something and pay $0.97 for a Webster's dictionary? It's the same amount of paper, ink, machinary, glue, and so on... the only difference is that there's no cost to developing or editing the material, since it's... well... a dictionary. Quite obviously, it costs them less than $1.00 to crank out one of those books... a novel isn't going to be any different.

[snathanb]

Originally posted by Astounded EEG
price has pretty much nothing to do with the supplier's cost, except that the price is guaranteed to be more.

The cost of the materials in a paperback is probably like 50 cents, while materials for hardcovers probably cost $3.00, give or take. actually both of those [totally uninformed] estimates might be high come to think of it.

anyway, assuming that the difference in cost is just $2.50, it's pretty clear that the retail price isn't strongly based on cost when the paperback goes for $10 and the hardcover for $25.

The way I see it, to an extent it is like watching movies.... You can pay 8 bucks to see it new... pay 4 bucks to rent it later ... pay $1 when it comes around to the dollar theatre, watch it for free when it hits broadcast or basic cable.

Books are typically release in Hardcover first and people are paying a premium to get it then versus waiting on the paper back version that may be a year down the line.

Originally posted by snathanb
The way I see it, to an extent it is like watching movies.... You can pay 8 bucks to see it new... pay 4 bucks to rent it later ... pay $1 when it comes around to the dollar theatre, watch it for free when it hits broadcast or basic cable.

Books are typically release in Hardcover first and people are paying a premium to get it then versus waiting on the paper back version that may be a year down the line.

yeah i noted that in the paragraph in my post immediately following what you quoted.

in any event the cost of the materials in a paperback don't come anywhere close to the actual retail price of the book.

[RacerX2oo3]

I'll agree with you to a point. The value of a book or a music CD or computer is more than the sum of its parts. However there are serious differences as well. First and foremost is that we are talking about a product that does not need to be stored, shipped, stocked, or take up any shelf space. There is no need to manage inventory with e-books.

The purchaser of an e-book has no tangiable product after the purchase. The title cannot be lent to a friend as with a physical book. I can't sell the title at a used book store. The very nature of the use agreements on protected e-books limit how the end user can use the e-book.

99.9% of the production of an e-book is already accomplished through the steps taken during the traditional printing process.

As with Hard cover books, if you want to read it first, perhaps there should be some premium paid for a "first run" e-book. But there is no reason why e-books should cost as much as a hardcover, greedy publishers will drive buyers away from the e-book market

[snathanb]

Originally posted by RacerX2oo3

The purchaser of an e-book has no tangiable product after the purchase. The title cannot be lent to a friend as with a physical book. I can't sell the title at a used book store. The very nature of the use agreements on protected e-books limit how the end user can use the e-book.

99.9% of the production of an e-book is already accomplished through the steps taken during the traditional printing process.

As with Hard cover books, if you want to read it first, perhaps there should be some premium paid for a "first run" e-book. But there is no reason why e-books should cost as much as a hardcover, greedy publishers will drive buyers away from the e-book market

Interesting discussion... as a side note, this same discussion could pertain to online distribution of music. I have not noticed any reduction in cost for music that can be purchased online. In fact, those sites selling tracks for $0.99 are making more money per track than traditionally distributed music. :crooked:

I voted for paying between $9-$12 for a new book....(and less $ for an older book). As for the publisher vs. the author reasons...don't really care about those issues....it's just the price I would be willing to pay.

(as for the music...I'd be willing to pay more to get the tracks I want instead of possibly paying for half of a CD I don't listen to).

Originally posted by RacerX2oo3
there is no reason why e-books should cost as much as a hardcover, greedy publishers will drive buyers away from the e-book market

well, ebooks have advantages over material books as well. you can read an ebook in perfect darkness because of the device's backlight. you also don't have to hold the pages down to keep them from turning or even just to keep the book open. and ebooks are infinitely portable.

ebooks are complimentary goods. unless a person has a PPC or is particularly keen on doing absolutely everything sitting at his desktop computer, that person won't have any interest in an ebook, so the market is drastically limited already.
If the person has got a PPC or other handheld, then ebooks increase the value of the ppc as well as provide their own intrinsic value. I am willing to bet that many of us don't buy an ebook simply because we want to read that book--we also buy the ebook because we want to read it on our PPCs.

of course there are major drawbacks as you said, including the fact that MS reader books for example can only be read on the purchaser's device(s). so the question when trying to figure out how an ebook should be priced relative to a material book is whether or not the advantages outweigh the disadvantages in the consumer's valuation of the ebook. if they are equal, then the consumer values the ebook at the same price as the consumer values the material book, and the price should be the same.

this gets really subjective, but my point is that there are features of ebooks that make them more valuable than material books in certain respects, and these advantages offset the drawbacks with a buoyancy in price. how much that effect should be is again subjective and certain to be downplayed significantly in a forum perused mainly by consumers such as aximsite.

as PPC prices continue to fall, more people will buy handhelds because suddenly they can afford them. once these people start showing up in force in the ebook market, it will be worth it for ebook sellers' to lower their prices because all of a sudden the middle-income people are so much more numerous than the upper-income people. Presumably these upper-income people substantially dominate the current ebook market, as it would help explain the high price level.


Good God I sound like one of my classes...I hope I'm not traumatizing anyone...the sad thing is that everything I'm basing my lecturing on can be learned in about an hour in the event that the person hasn't already intuited all of it on their own.... econ is such a worthless major.....kind of like my foreign affairs [double]major.....hmmm......