Before you read the below post, please vote in the following poll. For a brand new book that is also available in hardcover at $25.00, what do you think the e-book should cost? (People who subscribe via e-mail will need to click through to see the poll).
Did you vote? Cool.
(and let me pre-empt my not-interested-in-ebook friends: I know. There’s no option for backlighting grayscale look feel smell DRM you’ll go blind bathtub. Just vote for the option you feel sounds about right)
Now. As I’m writing this post, I have no idea how that poll will go and what consumers think a new e-book should cost, but I can confidently guess it’s less than what publishers think they should cost.
As everyone knows, once the first e-book copy is produced it doesn’t really cost much extra for the next million to be shipped electronically. When they sell e-books, publishers save on printing, binding, warehousing, shipping, returns, etc. etc. etc. Therefore, e-books save publishers money and consumers expect that e-books should be cheaper than paper books (and agents and authors expect that their electronic royalties should be higher than with paper book royalties).
So. How much do publishers save with e-books?
According to HarperStudio publisher Bob Miller, the printing/binding cost of most books is about $2.00. Let’s just say for the purposes of this post that the other incidental costs relating to print books (shipping, warehousing, returns) comes to another couple of dollars, so, let’s say, print costs translate to roughly $4.00 on a $25.00 hardcover. (I’m not a publisher and thus this number should be taken with a grain of salt. Also it varies from book to book).
Thus, assuming the discounts to booksellers and e-booksellers are the same, in order to preserve the same profit margin on an e-book for this $25.00 hardcover, an e-book would need to cost roughly $17.00.
(The math: $25 x 50% discount = $12.50 to publisher, minus $4.00 print costs = $8.50; $17.00 x 50% discount = $8.50. Note that the $8.50 is not profit – that is the chunk out of which they have to cover costs and pay authors. Also see this post and this post for more info on how revenue is broken down between bookseller, publisher, agent and author.)
Where do the other costs of producing an e-book go? Paying the author, marketing and publicity, editorial, sales, production, overhead, accounting, etc. These are fixed costs that exist whether it’s a print book or an e-book.
Now, I understand that lower prices result in more sales, and that publishers might need to recalibrate their pricing model to best utilize electronic sales. Margin per copy isn’t everything if publishers are able to make it up in volume. Also bear in mind that for now, as I explained yesterday, major publishers (with the exception now of Macmillan) are being paid for Kindle e-books on the basis of the hardcover list price, not the price Amazon actually charges.
But what we’re seeing from the Macmillan/Amazon spat is great anxiety on the part of the publishers about a (for now completely theoretical) future in which they receive income based on a $9.99 price point. This was never a business with huge profits. If publishers are ever paid on the basis of a $9.99 price point for their blockbuster books rather than $24.95 the pie will have shrunk by over half. And that is striking fear into the heart of publishers. Publishers want to push up from $9.99 so badly some are willing to accept less money per copy sold just to make that happen.
And yet, underlying all of this nuts and bolts reality for publishers is a cold fact. When it comes to a publishers’ fixed costs and margins and legacy business models: consumers don’t care. They have their own idea about what an e-book “should” cost. An e-book feels like it should cost a lot less than something tangible like a paper book. And in a digital era consumers can ruthlessly enforce the perceived value of a digital product with their dollars and with piracy.
You can plainly see the dilemma the publishers are facing, especially if/when e-books grow to be bigger than print book sales. There’s a gap between their margins and the e-book expectations of consumers. Right now Amazon is filling that gap by taking losses on e-books in order to sell Kindles. But publishers worry that can’t last forever. The pressure is building, and someone is likely going to feel the squeeze, as authors already are.
Wildheit says
No e-reader, and no e-book experience, but if I would own the copy I would easily pay half the HC price, or I might wait until the book is not so new anymore and pay less (I'm patient enough to let the hardcover pass me by). If I'm just sort of loaning the e-copy, then even $10 is way too much.
I used to work for a small scale, Belgian distributor, so I have some experience in the book-selling world. We either bought stock or worked on commission, mostly non-fiction titles. Depending on the publisher and contract, we had a discount of somewhere between 35% and 60% on the list price (after VAT deduction). Bookstores got somewhere between 10% to 50% from us, depending on their profile (large surface stores got around 35% for default), history, return options, special actions…
All the discussions I've seen on the pricing issues thus far concentrate on the publisher's right or wrong.
But I wonder why so many people find it abnormal for a publisher to ask $14 for a so-called easy, click-of-a-mouse-button e-book, and nobody finds it strange that Amazon should get $4,2 of that for managing virtual, just as easy click-of-a-mouse-button sales.
Of course there are costs to e-sales, but digital storage and bandwidth a month is still a hell of a lot cheaper that physical storage and the manual labor involved in getting a book in a box and to a store.
Cam Snow says
I just had another quick thought:
One thing that publishers could start doing is hyping their own websites to bring readers to them. This would allow them to not only cut out the e-tailers (and retailers), but it would allow them better price control.
Right now Penguin USA has ebookson sale for $2.99 to $27.95 – but why charge that high price? Since they have cut out the retailers 50%, the could charge 1/2 that, and still turn the same profit!
Personally, I don't see why the publishers don't team up, and start a new internet site, and then stop selling books to Amazon!
CherryRed says
Businesses evolve inline with society (or the other way around). If huge publishing houses are doomed, they will die a natural death. Regardless of them stamping their feet at this point in time.
Upping the price of e-books and at the same time lowering their own profit on individual books… that is a short term business strategy. It ultimately only insures that, for the meantime, consumers pay more.
Books are creative art – and should get priced accordingly. No flat rate will ever work.
E-books will never have the same value as an actual printed book. Printed books won't disappear in some rights debate (can you imagine a book shop owner comming to your house "Terribly sorry looks like I didn't have full rights to sell you that book, can I have it back?"). The answer is no.
You can loan out a printed book to friends and family, you can prop up a table leg, throw them at your spouse during an arguement and use them as fuel for fires during Apocalyptic events.
jongibbs says
$5-$10 for me, though I don't know much about E-Books.
Anonymous says
Nathan-
I wish you'd also talk about this side of it because it's maybe the most dangerous part for big publishing if you ask me:
All this bickering is over how big publishers need to raise prices to cover their costs and keep profits-esp on new releases. Costs we know are bloated. Sorry, but they are.
Common sense says publishers should be focused on lowering costs instead, right? To keep prices at a consumer-friendly level.
Sure. And you already have people like Jane Friedman/Open Road thinking about just that. In the wings. Buying up backlist titles. Planning to outsource many of those costs. Because that's how you keep costs down and increase profits-letting others eat them so you don't have to.
That's how Konrath does so well on his titles. They're either his originals or the rights have reverted. Those costs-already eaten. He, the author, keeps all the profit. No splits with editor or agent.
And what happens when a huge author-pretend a Patterson-makes a deal with Amazon or B&N to publish directly through them? Because it's just a matter of time.
All the attention and bickering seems to be on the wrong issues here. There's people on the sidelines waiting for the giants to fall. Shouldn't publishing be considering that too? Shouldn't we be talking about that?
Kathryn Magendie says
Those poll numbers, so far, are interesting. 50% in the 10- $14.99 range (isn't that the Macm range?) but 4% thought e-books should cost near as much as the hardcover.
Will be interested to see where this informal poll goes.
Just thinking – those electronic readers aren't cheap – so you buy an expensive reader but expect the books to be really cheap – just a flash of a thought I haven't really thought thru too much, but anyway, maybe it's already been pointed out and talked about and I'm way behind.
Kathryn Magendie says
Those poll numbers, so far, are interesting. 50% in the 10- $14.99 range (isn't that the Macm range?) but 4% thought e-books should cost near as much as the hardcover.
Will be interested to see where this informal poll goes.
Just thinking – those electronic readers aren't cheap – so you buy an expensive reader but expect the books to be really cheap – just a flash of a thought I haven't really thought thru too much, but anyway, maybe it's already been pointed out and talked about and I'm way behind.
Anonymous says
If it only costs publishers $2.00 to provide me with a brick of bleached tree pulp, smothered in glue and ink, then we have deeper problems than are currently being discussed. Apparently publishers have already been busy externalizing their costs.
Anonymous says
So I spent part of the morning perusing e-publishers, Samhain, Bookstrand, etc. and I was surprised. Most ebooks were 5.99 or lower.
Now, I didn't click every title on every site. But it's fascinating. They're in business and seem to be doing well (if the boards are to be believed).
Their costs are lower, obviously-no major league authors, they seem to outsource editing, etc, most are no advance, yes? But they're doing it and seem to be doing it well.
Joe Konrath says
Voting on a poll is one thing. Voting with your wallet is another.
I was discussing this on another thread, and someone said something that resonated with me.
"Shouldn't the value of a book be the royalties it earns?"
I've shown that profit is higher with lower cost ebooks. My royalty for trunk novels I've put up without NY Publishing behind them have earned more than the average advance a new print author gets.
Ebooks will go down in price, just like digital music did. Publishers can get in on the action, or get cut out of the action.
It shocks me how many authors are rejoicing Macmillan's victory, when they're going to sell fewer books as a result.
Crunch the numbers. A $14.99 Macmillan book ($10.50 cost to Amazon, the retailer) will earn an author 20% of that wholesale cost: $2.10.
A self published author, using the new Amazon royalty scheme, will earn $1.94 for each $2.99 ebook sold.
Paperbacks outsell hardcovers. Consumers want cheaper.
I bet I sell more $2.99 books than Macmillan authors sell $14.99 books.
And here's the funny thing. Publishers DO experiment with cheaper ebooks. My publisher, Grand Central, debuted my horror novel AFRAID on Kindle and Sony at $1.99. I sold 10,000 copies in a month.
You're an agent, Nathan. You read royalty statements. How many of your clients have sold 10,000 ebooks in a month?
Right now, NY Publishing is fighting to protect print, and pricing ebooks high to preserve the status quo.
But change will come. Ebooks will take off, in a big way.
And both publishers, and agents, need to figure out how to be relevant when this happens…
Joe Konrath says
And with consumers, you have to meet their value, not ask them to meet ours.
@Bradley – Stop it! You're making too much sense! I'm the only Cassandra allowed in this biz. 😉
Marla Taviano says
I'm selfishly torn. As an author, I want them to cost more. As a consumer, less.
Speaking of e-books, here's something fun–my husband @GodsMac "invented" an iPad that will please even the oldest-school book-lovers. https://bit.ly/aTNeZ2
Karen says
I agree with those who say the e-books are here to stay, but I also agree that consumers will drive the cost. Consumers always want to pay less — they don't care about being "educated" on the costs of production, what the author makes, etc. If someone figures out how to get e-books to the consumer for less, the consumers will move in that direction. Meanwhile, I STILL haven't plunked down the bucks for an e-reader myself, because of all of this volatility.
Anonymous says
Just out of curiosity, how much money can you really get by selling a book to a used bookstore?
Anonymous says
"Just out of curiosity, how much money can you really get by selling a book to a used bookstore?"
Not enough for me to pay for the gas to get to the used bookstore and back.
Anonymous says
@Anon 7:09 a.m.:
My thoughts exactly.
I've just seen so much foot-stomping from folks who are all outraged that they can't re-sell their ebooks to used bookstores that I was convinced we must be talking about zillions upon zillions of dollars.
Madara says
I am really looking forward to getting a real ebook reader. I have an iPod Touch, but the screen is rather small.
Most of the fiction my wife and I read are one offs and then sell for a quarter in a garage sale.
To me $9.99-$14.99 is a very reasonable price for a consumer, but maybe not for an author.
To avoid clutter I would love to read novels and even comic books and graphic novels on the iPad. Comics are not a collectible anymore. I have a closet full of comics I accumulated over the years. I hope Marvel and DC are smart enough to get on the iPad bandwagon early.
Anonymous says
I guess I just don't get all the angst over the pricing of an ebook versus a hardcover.
I buy the books I want to read because I'm interested in the content and the writing, not the price or the packaging. To me, the advantage of my Kindle is that I can get pretty much any book I want, whenever I want it, and consume it at my leisure wherever I happen to be (if I'm traveling and decide on a whim to re-read "The Stand" I don't have to fly home and grab it off my bookshelf). Convenience and accessibility more than offset any of the "downsides" of ebooks I've seen debated here and elsewhere – in fact, to me, convenience and accessibility are worth a premium.
I don't care about the feel of the paper, the smell of the ink, reading in the bathtub, or any of that crap. I'm not worried about "losing" my ebooks because I back them up on my computer and on an external hard drive. If I want a friend or family member to read something I like, I say, "Hey, this was a really good book; you should go buy it" or else, if I'm feeling benevolent, I'll buy it for them, either in hardcover or via an online gift card. And, as noted above, whatever small sum I might be able to get for re-selling a book would not, in my experience anyway, be worth the hassle involved.
Anonymous says
So I spent part of the morning perusing e-publishers, Samhain, Bookstrand, etc. and I was surprised. Most ebooks were 5.99 or lower.
Now, I didn't click every title on every site. But it's fascinating. They're in business and seem to be doing well (if the boards are to be believed).
Their costs are lower, obviously-no major league authors, they seem to outsource editing, etc, most are no advance, yes? But they're doing it and seem to be doing it well.
February 3, 2010 5:57 AM
It's genre fiction. The writers work faster, producing up to a dozen novels a year, and the readers and fans are voracious and serious, reading five or six books a week. It comes in volume, repeatedly.
And, many of the authors are career writers with credits that include NYT best sellers. They use pen names for this, and create completely different online identities to promote their other books. It's also very aggressive and competitive.
The publishing world is layered, and e-publishers like the ones you've mentioned are working hard to build inventory that's going to be around for a long time. And, the numbers continue to increase.
Scath says
Haven't read through all the comments yet, but Amazon does allow publishers to make ebooks DRM free.
Seems to be a very recent development. I just noticed it last week while making a change to one of my ebooks distributed there.
Mira says
J. Konrath – great post, thanks.
I agree.
I also think that publishing and bookselling functions will be combined.
At base, what you really need is an author, a reader and a way to get the book to the reader.
Amazon is a publisher/bookseller at this point. If traditional publishing doesn't find a way to become a bookseller, they'll most likely end up merging with Amazon or something like Amazon at some point. Which might look like monopoly, except the upcoming model may make it easier for independents to enter the market more seriously.
Including independent authors. It may actually become possible, especially if piracy software is improved, for an author to e-mail thier work directly to a reader.
Malia Sutton says
"If you're worried about your e-book disappearing all you have to do is put it on your computer. They can't delete it from there. How does a file on your computer not actually belong to you?"
Thank you, Nathan. I didn't have the energy last night.
Selestial says
Too many comments for me to read through them all (I have writing to do). I want to use the music comparison for a minute. In general, if I go to the store, I can pick up a CD at $15.00 regular price. There may be sales that knock it lower on occasion, but that is the base price until said CD hits the bargain bin. If I go to iTunes, I'm paying $1.29 per track. Grabbing a handful of CDs, I checked the number of tracks: 10-16 grabbed at random. On average probably 12. 12 X $1.29 = $15.48.
That means music (which is a common comp tool) costs, at best, the same digitally as it does on CD. People don't balk at those prices.
Yes, books are different. Unless we start selling books by the chapter, you can't buy part of a book to "test" a new author. But that isn't the issue here, the issue is cost.
Publishers need to make back the money they spend on making a book. If they don't do that AND earn more, they can't produce more books. When they produce a book in hardcover, they expect to make back a big chunk of change selling those at $25.00 each. Sure, there are sometimes discounts, but I've never seen a best seller go below 40% off (and non-bestsellers don't even go that cheap). So at 40% off, it's still a $15.00 book. The same as the proposed price of an e-book released at the same time as a hardcover (bestseller or not).
People don't want windowing. They want to be able to buy the book the day it comes out. Peachy. Then pay for what it's worth.
As far as I understand it, the proposed model lowers the cost of the e-book over time until (probably coinciding with MMPB release) the price drops below that of a MMPB.
For those of us who are aspiring authors, and those who want to keep seeing debut authors, publishers need to keep making money on books or they will cut down (even more) on the risky acquisitions. That means debut authors.
I'm willing to pay to keep my reading options open.
Donna says
An ebook should cost what a traditionally published book costs, within a few dollars. (And sure, take into account the common discounts being offered. If a new title is being sold in B&N and Borders at 30% off, then the ebook should be discounted, too.) The price should follow the change in price from hardcover to paperback.
To have a huge price difference between the two will only cannibalize the print book business, similar to what happened to Levi Strauss Co. when it started a new low-priced line for sale in WalMart. Its line of quality (and higher priced) jeans died — killed by competition from its own company! When that happens, you no longer have a choice between two products; you're just left with the cheaper and inferior product. Macmillan's stand was correct and far-sighted (to take Ink's wording).
Lest anyone take offense at the idea that ebooks are inferior, well, for a book that you value and want to keep, it IS inferior. If you just want to read something, and you don't want to store it afterward, then an ebook is great — a valuable option. But if you value the book itself as well, as a physical work of art, then an ebook is nothing. And I do value some books as attractive physical works of art, as well as literature.
Anonymous says
Selestial said: Yes, books are different. Unless we start selling books by the chapter, you can't buy part of a book to "test" a new author.
You don't need to buy chapters. Excerpts are already offered for free. For example,Amazon allows you to download samples (chapters) of a book for free. Then you can decide whether you enjoyed it enough to purchase the remainder.
Natasha Fondren says
Just in case it's possible we might be a little biased in our poll, here's one from what strikes me as more likely our target market:
How Much Would You Pay For an Ebook?
Selestial says
Re: Anon 2:55
I know and agree, but that's part of what I find so infuriating about people not just wanting but expecting super cheap e-books. You have the option to test-drive the book. I don't understand the logic that spending the money on an e-reader (which I have) means you somehow deserve to pay markedly less than the person buying the book at a brick and mortar store.
Edward G. Talbot says
I couldn't read all 179 comments, so someone may have pointed this out, but I have one quibble. I think you're suggesting that the cover price should be $17.00 if you are using $25 as a comparison price. Given the recent trigger for this discussion, I'd say that is a key point. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me for the first 3 months or so of an e-book's life. That means that most buyers will probably get the book for somewhere between $10 and $15.
As much as some readers and publishers are making this about how much people "will pay" for ebooks (as if they or anyone knows), the Macmillan/Amazon squabble is really all about two entities trying to use market share to gain an advantage. Both Amazon and Macmillan are saying "throw away the model we use for hardcover." Which is fine, but it makes discussions based on the existing model less relevant.
FWIW, I suspect that most readers don't care about DRM and the fact that they are essentially renting the book not owning it. I actually think the biggest perceived loss of value for the average buyer will be the inability to share the book as they can with a physical one. And I don't see one company forcing a standard as happened with Itunes. All this tells me that we are far, far from having any idea what "people will pay" for an ebook.
Beryl Hall Bray says
I appreciate Karen Wester Newton's comment regarding authors. If author's aren't adequately compensated, where are the 'cheaper' books going to come from? Uh, let's aim that comment at quality writing. Why don't we add editors and agents to this consideration?
Authors, agents, and freelance editors are much like the key, ignition, and gas pedal in a vehicle. Without them, not much point in having that shiny vehicle in the driveway.
Anonymous says
Great link to other poll, Natasha. Fascinating (not really, sorry Nathan) that the $5-10 range is way ahead-the flip of Nathan's poll results.
It's rather what I feared when actual consumers were asked.
Anon 2:55 says
Selestial said:
I know and agree, but that's part of what I find so infuriating about people not just wanting but expecting super cheap e-books. You have the option to test-drive the book. I don't understand the logic that spending the money on an e-reader (which I have) means you somehow deserve to pay markedly less than the person buying the book at a brick and mortar store.
I don't agree that's why they think e-books aren't worth more than $9.99, though. It's irrelevant what price they paid for their e-reader or if they enjoyed the sample.
I think consumers place a value on e-books based on their own personal beliefs, not what e-reader they use and its price tag. And most consumers just don't place a high value on them. There not physical objects, they can't lend or handle them, etc. In their mind, it's just not worth the same amt. Regardless of what device they load it on.
Trust me. Consumers will still balk at the prices even after e-reader prices drop to $100 and below.
Anon 2:55 says
And remember, Selestial. Those book prices are what they are because of bloated costs-in-house editors, etc. E-pubs offer lower prices because they've reduced those costs.
Consumers don't care about Big Publishing's costs. They don't want to cover them through higher price tags. They want cheap.
Look at Walmart. Consumers are more than willing to look away from the how of how they keep costs low just so they can have the cheap.
Nathan Bransford says
anon-
I don't really agree that "big publishing" has bloated in house costs. There have been some pretty ruthless cutbacks and everyone is doing more with less. In-house editors are not simply a luxury, they're project managers that oversee the entire projects.
That said, I completely agree that consumers don't care about all that. And if the average reader can't tell the difference between a Random House book and a self-published book and if readers don't continue to gravitate to the established brands, publishers are going to have a serious problem on their hands.
Anonymous says
It isn't as simple as that; not all eBooks are created equal. Offerings from some companies will have richer fonts, some truetype fonts, etc. Some give you the book open to the first page (Kindle) some give you the book with the cover showing. All in all, I would say an eBook should be between 5 and 10 dollars, depending on the richness of the reading experience. I suppose fonts are big part of this for me.
Anonymous says
@Nathan:
Having the big publishers located in NYC has to increase their facility expenses and their payrolls. I'm sure if they were located in an area with a lower cost of living, their expense base would be lower.
My girlfriend rarely looks at who the publisher is for any book she buys, so I'm not sure how much brand value exists today. If I were to randomly ask people about who the publisher is for any book they were reading, I doubt most people would answer correctly. One exception would be Harlequin. This is definitely a problem that is being overlooked.
John C says
I'm an IT guy so I'm naturally inclined to go with high-tech stuff. But in all my research into e-readers, none of them have all of what I want. Kindle seems to be one of the best except for the DRM and format restrictions. Sony's readers seem to have very basic yet fatal flaws such as screen glare.
The iPad (all hygiene jokes aside) seems interesting if not too large for the purpose.
So I've found myself researched out and e-reader-less.
For the e-reader-philes out there, any suggestions? If you're a fanboi, please state that in advance so I can discount your opinion by 12.3%.
It would be rather interesting for other big names to enter the book publishing biz, perhaps in a bid to streamline things. Apple would not be unwelcome in my book although I've never purchased a thing from iTunes.
I do, however, have an iPhone (which I never use) and a Motorola Droid (which I DO use).
Nathan Bransford says
anon-
Trust me, the payrolls are not inflated just because they're in NYC. They're not paying NYC salaries.
I don't know about the rent, but I'm willing to bet that the benefit of drawing upon a pool of local talent far outweighs the expense of having office space in NYC.
Susan Quinn says
If Stephen King is right, the price is not in $$ but in our very souls! 🙂
Now available on Kindle: UR, by Stephen King
Thank you for the irony dose, Mr. King!
Claudia says
Look. People are either readers or they're not. E-readers and e-books are not going to invent a market for books out of thin air. And people who read either spend money on books or they don't. Some people say they would only buy one-off reads (ie trash) with an e-reader, but others would want print for that, because those kinds of books ARE the ones you're going to take in the tub, to the beach, etc. Whatever. The point is not what consumers WANT to pay, or SAY they will pay, but what they DO pay. If they wouldn't buy an e-book at x price but would buy a paperback at that price, who cares? The market will figure itself out. In the meantime, publishers should try to get as much as they can for ebooks and see what the market will actually bear before they decide in a vacuum what consumers will or will not pay. The only feedback that matters is the feedback at the cash register.
Meanwhile, it's good to remember that this format was not driven by consumer demand in the first place. Technology providers created ereaders, then marketed them. Readers didn't say, hey we want this. Readers are nonetheless seeing benefits in the e-format, but I'd say it's still a pretty wide gap and if Amazon et al force publishers to an all-e model, many consumers will be severely bummed. It's kind of like the switch to CDs…consumers were mostly going HUH? We were all fine with records and tapes. CDs had some benefits, but we lost some benefits, too, and we probably didn't need the hassle of switching over. It was a forced switch, not something consumers demanded. I think there's a little more organic interest in e-readers, but it's still an industry-driven change and it's kind of funny that it's likely to bite the industry on the ass (via piracy etc).
But in the end, I'm not buying ANY of the arguments that readers are that influenced by price. Well, I guess there's probably an upper limit, and that's why textbooks are suffering. But what's afflicting reading as a pasttime is not price.
Nathan Bransford says
claudia-
Wait, consumers didn't drive the switch to CD? How was that forced on anyone?
And I don't know what industry is driving people to switch to e-books. No consumer is being forced to do anything. People are making the switch because they like e-books. It's not as if anyone lacks for access to paper books.
Claudia says
Hi Nathan,
Please don't take me too literally. No one held a gun to anyone's head with CDs (you might be too young to remember all this 🙂 ) but it wasn't as if people were sitting around thinking, hey albums and tapes suck, we want a different way to consume music. We'd like to get rid of all this really cool artwork, and these great liner notes, and the holistic experience of the album (go hear Sherman Alexie speak on this if you get a chance :)–he interrupts midway to speak to say to GenY "you don't have any idea what the HELL I'm talking about, do you?"), and instead we want to have gross little squares of plastic that are always falling apart scattered all over our houses. The industry found CDs more cost effective and it *phased out* CDs. You didn't have the chance to vote with your dollar because there were no more records to buy. Which is what will happen with books.
Anyway, point being that it becomes less about what consumers want and offering them choices as about the margins. If there are books on one hand and e-books on the other, and the analystis think they can make more money on e-books, that's where they will go, no matter what the consumers want to buy. Perhaps there will be limited-edition print runs, just as there are some albums still released on vinyl, but it won't be a choice in the way it is today.
I think you're right, people do like e-readers, and for right now it's great to have the option. But for most people the reading experience wasn't broken in the first place. We probably all would have been fine if this had never come up. When we no longer have a choice, taking a bath WILL be pretty boring. I guess we'll just have to get a lot more Zen about it. And if the New Yorker is delivered only digitally, I'll be constipated for life. 😀
Though maybe there is still hope. For all the hype on this topic, I must say that when I fly I see NO ONE using an e-reader and TONS of people reading actual books, and a friend who flies to Asia every month says the same thing.
Oh, and to answer your question about what I'd pay, the point of the e-reader it seems to me is instant gratification and convenience, rather than book price. CDs aren't cheaper than albums were, and as someone pointed out already, neither are single-song downloads. People are, I guess, into iPods because of the convenience and the shuffle thing and the uninterrupted listening (it sure isn't the sound quality–the actual *music* part is apparently irrelevant). So, being contrarian once again, I *think* I might actually be most likely to use an e-reader for new-release books that I didn't feel like waiting for but were not what I'd want to keep around. For example, I just bought and hated Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna. I donated it to the library a week after I bought it because it wasn't worth the shelf space, which I'm running out of. Perfect e-reader candidate, and why shouldn't I pay as much as I was going to anyway? So, full hardcover price.
But doesn't this all seem as though it's all part of a trend toward an overall cheapening of experience? Ipods are for people who aren't really very serious about the listening experience (because if you hook them up to a good stereo, you realize how bad they sound), e-readers for those not very serious about serious reading, digital cameras, ditto, and that's all fine except that this technology ends up *supplanting* the good stuff. So those of us who do care are just left outside of it all unless we're rich enough to pay for what we want… oh shit, I sound like Salinger.
But my fear is that if an e-book became the ONLY choice, I actually won't be *able* to read, because the only time in my day just isn't suited to the e-reader format. And THAT means I won't be able to fall asleep at all, so I'll just be lying in there in the dark…
Speaking of which, time to get to it.
Claudia says
PS (still working) I don't mean to suggest that "the industry" is this monolithic thing that thinks and makes decisions. Still, people come up with ideas and then create demand for them, rather than the other way around, more often than not, no matter what myths we were taught about the marketplace and capitalism in school. I've spent years developing marketing strategy and content for technology companies…
Anonymous says
Our 26 year old daughter is a voracious reader connected to a huge social network of readers. She (they) also shops around for book prices.
When she can get the paperback version of The Lightning Thief for $7.99 at Target, THAT is what she wants to pay for the paperback. She would only consider an e-reader if it was free and if she could get the book for half the price of the paperback or less.
The only person I personally know with an e-reader is a fairly well off professional software designer in his forties. He loves it. And he is a voracious reader too. But he reads more quirky stuff. My daughter and her age group are STRONG YA readers.
Anonymous says
I just looked it up and the Lightning Thief on Kindle is $6.39 currently.
Anonymous says
If someone bought thirty books a year and a Kindle lasts 2 years, (assuming by then it will be obsolete, if not dropped in the bathtub or stolen or something) they would be paying $4.17 extra, per title, to cover the cost of the Kindle. That puts an average 9.99 book up to $14.10 on Kindle.
Even the 6.39 versions + 4.17 = 10.56 each.
It makes a young person on a budget who wants books, go to the library, borrow and trade, or shop Target.
The books that sell between 2.00 and 4.00 as e-books and/or a free reader and e-books no higher than $5.00 might get that (VERY Important target group of YA readers) to cross over.
Anonymous says
Just an observation I thought I'd add -though not scientific:
In high school, with parents who buy books, a boy/girl (who can devour a book in a sitting) gets 4 books a month (3 at 12.99 and 1 at 25.00).
Over two years, the parents spend approx $1,536. on 96 current books.
—
After High School, on a meager student budget (i.e. their parents aren't buying the books anymore) the same kid goes on to buy 2 books a month at 7.99 each and borrow/trade for the other 2 books a month.
Over two years they spend approx. $384. on 48 books they had to wait to buy until the price came down.
—
If they buy an e-reader, they can buy 2 books a month at 2.99 and 2 books a month at 5.00 and go back to buying 4 books a month.
They are spending 360. over two years on books. They are buying 96 books again and probably considering new/less known/unknown authors in the cheaper ranges as well as favorites that have finally hit e-book affordability.
But with the e-reader (250.00 model) they are spending
$610. over two years.
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I would think the goal of authors and publishers would be to keep the reader reading books that they can afford and will pay for. Authors don't make money on the e-readers unless their books sell.
Terry S says
I don't know how much I would pay for an ebook, because I've never bought one. The only ebooks on my hard drive have been free. And I don't have a Kindle either — for about $100 more, I got a full-color netbook that has Windows XP Home and is not a one-trick pony.
As far as paper books are concerned, the local libraries have a nice stock of those, and the only cost is the annual membership fee (if any) and the gas to drive there and back. The only hardbacks I buy, I get at used-book stores or garage sales, or by swapping them at my book club. Ditto for paperbacks.
But then, I've never been one who was addicted to having the "latest and greatest" of anything. I can wait until prices go down or the book shows up at the used-book stores or garage sales.
Now, I'm talking about mind candy – books for recreation.
When it comes to art books or reference works, it's a different story, and I've been known to pay quite high prices for those. And if those were available as ebooks, I'd probably be willing to pay quite a hefty amount too, especially for reference works, but that's because in this case the electronic edition would actually have benefits that aren’t available with a paper edition, such as being able to instantly search the text and surf from one hit to another, annotate the text and then export those notes, do non-destructive highlighting and bookmarking (i.e., dog-earing)… With this type of book, I do feel I get value by buying the electronic edition.
Granted, with mind candy I also get some value, as far as portability and easy storage that doesn’t clutter up my living space, but so far I haven’t seen any prices that were attractive enough for me to actually shell out money for them. They’d have to cost less than what I pay for paperbacks at used-book stores and garage sales – that’s the real yardstick, not the price of the just-released hard back!
sonia says
I disagree with whoever said that mass market paperbacks are not the usual format. They are; the only books published in hardcover are the books publisher expects will do well, ones that are already bestsellers at publication (through pre-orders, I assume) or ones they think will become bestsellers. New writers and plenty of middle list are never published in hardcover first. Those are priced at 7.99. Quite often, they are cheaper. The Kindle version (Nook version as well) of those books are 6.39. It's not a huge difference, not really enough to explain the difference in production/warehouse/return costs, I don't think.
Foreverlad says
Consider this:
You have a new book coming out today, hardcover. Odds are that at least half of the folk interested in reading your book will balk at paying for a hardcover. Blame cost, size, shipping, whatever. Oh well, if the subject/ideas are intriguing enough, they'll be back for the paperback, right? Who knows? How many people forget about Jane Smith's intriguing novel between format publications? How many potential sales are lost due to that 6 month to 1 year of waiting?
Many polls and debates about E-book prices seem too wrapped around an outdated business model, and that's going to affect the bottom line.
"Readers will pay more to read the book early." Please, define early. Hardcover publication isn't "early" it's exactly on time, as per tradition… outdated, overly complicated tradition. Want to charge 'more' for an E-book? Release it to the public a month before the Hardcover comes out. Otherwise, dynamic pricing is silly. The product NEVER changes. No fancy cover or finer paper, no prestige. A digital copy does not exist in limited quantities.
"E-books have a production cost." Of course they do. Their initial inception relies on most of the same production costs a dead tree copy does. Because publishing houses appear reliant on maintaining the old paradigm, early E-book readers are being told they're going to have to subsidize the outdated model of reading.
See, the hot new release is going to go to the printer upwards of 3 times, depending on the market. Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Mass Market Paperback. If it's a popular title, you're looking at multiple printing runs. Even if every released version sells at a profit, the time and energy invested is a pittance compared to producing and releasing a single digital copy of that same book. An E-book exists in perpetuity. It will never be out of stock, will never require additional print runs, will never be remaindered and pulped, traded in and resold. Every copy will earn the writer a royalty.
Unless the publishing industry has some 20 year contract with paper companies, they really need to be more proactive about the new format and less reactive to a perceived threat to tradition.
Hella says
most typical entry in my wishlist: wait for the paperback …
The ebook has to be cheaper, of course. Much less handling/shipping costs. And I have to provide the reading hardware (BTW: no kindle, no iWhatever – I don't buy hardware if somebody else can change contend on it from remote – thats MY hardware).
Absolute no-go: DRM
Last ebooks I bought: directly from the authors (C.J. Cherryh & Co: https://www.closed-circle.net/WhereItsAt/)
Last paperback I bought (in a real book shop) is from Charles Stross – whom I know because he has a lot of complete free books in the wild.
Last hardcover I bought: David Drake + Eric Flint (BAEN) – where I read 4 books as free e-book – and then bought the whole series as hardcover (OK, if all still would have been available as paperback it probably would have been paperback)
Whatever you do: the more expensive the book is, the more I need to evaluate whether its worth -> as a reader I want sample chapters