As reported at Dear Author from articles in the Charlotte Observer and the Wall Street Journal, Simon and Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy, Brian Murray, chief executive of News Corp.‘s HarperCollins Publishers, and Lagardere SCA’s Hachette Book Group all announced that they plan to delay digital book releases until months after the hardcover releases in 2010.
All you people who have digital readers (I’m raising my hand, too, here), it’s your/our fault. Reidy is quoted as saying:
Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy said Wednesday that the rise of e-books has led to a “cannibalizing” of new hardcover purchases.
“We believe that a large portion of the people who have bought e-readers are from the most devoted reading population,” Reidy said. “And if they like the e-readers they are naturally going to convert because the e-books are so significantly less expensive.”
I don’t know how much more complex a bad solution they could come up with here, but sticking it to the customer in order to protect sales of a dwindling product is the most ludicrous thing I’ve heard in a long ass time. It’s boneheaded and short sighted and insulting. Basically we’re being told that our dollars are not acceptable as sales currency because we bought the wrong format.
I think the only proper way to answer a solution this insanely complex in its lunacy is… rhyme. Let me make this as simple as possible in this hypothetical response to the publisher’s insistence in pushing the hardcover on a digital book customer.
Do you like this hardcover book?
You should buy it! Look look look!
I do not like a hardback book
I will not read it, not that book.
I want to read it, yes, I do,
but not that hardback, no, thank you.
Will you buy it here, or there?
You can buy it anywhere!
This hardback book is just for you.
The only kind we offer you.
I will not buy it, here or there.
I will not buy it anywhere.
I do not want a hardback book.
I want to buy a digital book.
Would you buy it in a store?
If you buy one, will you buy more?
You can buy it here, or there.
You can buy it anywhere!
We only have this hardback book.
There are no others, if you look.
This hardback paper is for you,
and if you buy one, you can buy two!
I will not buy it in a store.
I will not buy one, two, or more.
I will not buy it here, or there.
I will not buy it anywhere.
I will not buy a single one.
Our transaction might be done.
I do not want your hardback book.
I want to read my digi-book.
We do not sell digital books.
We only sell the hardback books.
If you want e, you have to wait.
Until the hardback sales abate.
This digital is just a fad,
and in our viewpoint, very bad.
The only books are ones like these:
Buy in hardback, won’t you please?
I will not buy them, don’t you know?
This is why your profits blow!
I want to read your books, right now!
I want to read them anyhow!
I want to put them on a Kindle,
or Nook or Sony, and not be swindled.
I will not buy a hardback book,
not now, not later, you backwards crook.
Your clueless thinking blows my mind.
E-sales are climbing! Are you blind?!
See this finger, nice and high?
You can kiss my sale goodbye.
I’ll go online and find my book,
scanned page by page by pirate crook,
and you have lost all sales from me,
both now and in the future. See,
I do not want your hardback book.
I want to read my digital book.
the first thing I do upon buying a book is crack that DRM like damn.
Well, right, because DRM only penalizes legitimate customers? I hate DRM, but book publishers are fanatically paranoid about falling into the sinkhole that music publishers have.
I mean, they will, eventually. Electronic product = piracy, and there’s no way they’re going to change that by being shy like this. Once e-readers become as ubiquitous as iPods, people will be torrenting Stephen King as much as they do Lil Wayne.
I feel for you guys, but I’d love to have this problem of delayed ebooks. As things stand, these publishers don’t allow anyone to sell me their ebooks. My bad, not good, no-no, unheard of choice of living outside the US restricts what digital content I can buy. Well, that’s their loss! Samhain and others with no border restrictions or DRM are happy to take my money.
Well. back to the actual topic…
This is true, right now. My argument is based on the fact that things will not stay the same as they are right now. First, everyone bases their argument on the current cost of production on an eBook. This will get cheaper, just like everything else. Look at LCD screen televisions, for example. just a couple of years ago people paid close to $1000 for a 26 inch screen. Now, no one would consider $500 a bargain.
Second, even the bestsellers (especially the bestsellers!) are not generating the profit they could for brick and mortar because of the nefarious schemes of companies like Walmart. And piracy. Not even allowing the customer the choice of a premium “new release” price on an eBook makes some people feel justified in downloading a pirated copy for free. The more honest of these may fully intend to pay for the real thing when it becomes available but many won’t. They see it as the moral equivalent of checking the book out from the library (which it isn’t since the library paid for their copy) and buying their own copy later.
So find the magic number price point on eBooks. And eReaders. Keep that market, cater to it while it’s still nascent. If Amazon persists in selling eBooks at a loss in an effort to drive out competition then they are breaking the law and subject to legal action, so take some. I can’t imagine any reason why a concerted effort at streamlining eBook production can’t yield a $9.99 book that is profitable, though. Several ePubbers out there offer titles for less than that and I’m pretty sure they aren’t in business to lose money. eBooks don’t get returned to the publisher nor do they make their way into used bookstores. Get a handle on piracy and there is a very good opportunity there.
And yes, the majority of books are still print. The growth chart of eBooks looks like a hockey stick, though, and as younger readers mature we will see an entire generation of people who have read far more words digitally than in print and like it that way.
Bookstores will never go away. They are a sanctified, magical place for booklovers. But the eBook boogeyman is not going away either and trouncing the sensibilities of a growth market is not good business.
I’ve had this discussion elsewhere about the wait for print vs. e book and it got rather heated,but since this is a new development I’ll just add my basic two cents:
While I do agree that this latest development seems to be more about publishers and vendors deciding who sets the standards for release/price,having a reasonable lag time between print and e version of a book is not so horrible. There are many folks out there who can’t afford/have no access/just don’t want an e-book and reader,and their needs are as important as yours.
Personally,I think publishers should expand the paperbacks(especially for new authors,since folks tend to take more of a chance on them purchasing wise)and reserve the hardcovers for the tried and true bestseller types or as a reprint of a popular title-they do this for genre material,such as Laurell K Hamilton and such. However,math is not my best subject so I don’t know if this is feasible or not. I base my opinions on my time as a indie bookseller for several years.
I have nothing against the whole E book thing but some of the defenders of this format can come across as strident and not have the wit to write an Seussian protest song. Also,maybe the publishing industry could get some feedback from consumers of all book formats to find a solution that works for everybody,which I think they’re trying to.
Your poetry was wonderful and funny. My only request is please…Please…PLEASE do not encourage e-piracy. It is stealing. I don’t like the way some publishers are handling this mess either but e-piracy penalizes the author as much or more than the publisher. When someone pirates my book I don’t get the royalties on it and it doesn’t count toward my sales numbers. If someone pirates my book they are stealing money out of my purse…literally. So please don’t pirate e-books – no matter how tempting it might be due to the publishers’ blindness or some other reason which sounds good at the time. My verification word was works79 – it fits. I works hard for the money. 🙂 Thanks.
I rarely if ever buy hardbacks and never for romances. Take the example of the latest Karen Marie Moning, which was released in August. Pre-Kindle i would have waited until next year and bought paperback for $6.99. Instead i bought it upon release for my Kindle and paid $9.99. They made more profit from me thanks to the Kindle.
With this new four month delay theory the publishers have going i may as well wait two extra months for the paperback. (In Moning’s case i know it’s a year but some authors it is much faster.) Even if i pay for the Kindle version it will be less expensive once the paperback is released.
Great way to make money, Big Publishing!
DRM is awful and Sarah how about a tutorial on how to crack that DRM. I’ve bought that book so I should be able to read it a coupld of years from now on the latest and greatest device. I don’t know what dream world these NY publishers are living in but they are nutso! If you abuse and exploit your customers even law abiding customers who’ve never stolen a bit of music (I’ll raise my hand here!) will be tempted. I haven’t bought any hardbacks except cookbooks since Harry Potter either. What about book clubs! Where do they fit in this model? They generally offer cheaper badly bound hardcovers around the same time the bestsellers come out. Are you going to screw them over also? Man, get your heads checked out cause something isn’t working in there!
Looks to me like publishers want to wedge ebooks into the paperback model, obviously to preserve the profit margins on hardcovers, the visibility of bestsellers, and restrain the price wars among ebook device stores. A stop-gap method at best.
As someone who has filled a house with hardcovers (many purchased, many inherited), I’m a collector as well as writer and reader. Hardcovers are a nostalgic reminder of reading experiences I loved. But I’m a dedicated ebook reader as well. My eyes need the e-ink—I had pretty much given up on paperback reading before the technology came along—and my hands and wrists appreciate the comfort of a reading device.
Initially, I replaced paperback reading with my Reader, but I soon branched out, reading anything of interest priced at trader paperback or lower. I’d be more than happy to pay trader paperback price for a book just released in hardcover. I have no personal problem paying a slight premium for the convenience of a lesser or no wait.
But that’s just me. One thing I’ve come to appreciate reading SBTB is the varied the needs of genre readers. What works for me probably won’t work for most readers—and publishers will likely have to bear the brunt of readers’ price resistance.
I think we’re going to see all kinds of strategies from all areas of publishing and booksellers for some time to come. The advent and impact of ebooks in commercial circles has yet to shake out.
The converse is also true. Furthermore, how are the needs of a traditonal book reader harmed by allowing me to purchase a book in the format I prefer? I certainly don’t expect the eBook to be available first with the hardcover following in four to six months.
If I am willing to pay for it, the way I want to read it, then what is the objection? The publisher still makes their money, authors still get their royalties, and I am a happy customer. Everybody wins.
If the publisher makes $4.00 gross on an ebook and $4.00 gross on a hardback it absolutely should not matter to them that I prefer to read it digitally.
On another note: A TOR editor told me a couple of months ago that only a small fraction of Macmillan’s sales are ebooks sales. He told me the figure, which I failed to commit to memory but it did strike a holy-cow-you’re-kidding-that-low? with me.
Now, I was probably encountering editor resistance to new media, but it also smacked of institutional thinking. Yet another reason for a long and dreary shake-out. At least it’s a more entertaining soap opera than Tiger Woods!
how absolutely incredibly selfish! ive been thinking about e-readers a lot, with the holidays approaching, and this news just continues to cement my belief that they are not for me.
when thinking about how digitalizing entertainment as gone in the past, for example iTunes, its all released instantaneously meaning the only choice a potential customer has is between the format, CD or digital. as oposed to having to chose by release date, geographic location, and other variables that are inposed on e-reader users.
the more complicated you make choices for customers, especially when it comes to delays in their product, the more sales you would lose. i just don’t see how this idea of delaying e-book releases in favor of hardcover sales has that many benefits to outweigh the costs.
I don’t. I was pointing out that policies like these only increase the proliferation of pirated copies. I am also a published author and while I accept piracy as a known loss and impairment to my profits, I’m still open in my desire for any book pirates to experience relentless diarrhea in a porta-potty with no TP. After eating spicy food.
My decision to crack the DRM on my books does not mean I am a pirate. I don’t distribute books en masse and take my copy and share it with a few bodrillion friends. Removing the DRM means I want the book to remain my possession, and not a loan, and moreover, I don’t want to have that book removed from my possession should I switch computers or should the vendor decide to take it back.
But again, diarrhea to book pirates.
My decision to crack the DRM on my books does not mean I am a pirate.
Actually, in fact it does. And this a key difference between e-books and physical books, which is a difference that is opaque to most consumers because the point of sale process is very similar. With e-books you are NOT buying a book. You do not own the e-books you purchase in the same sense that people think of ownership of the physical books they have on their shelves. You are purchasing a LICENSE to read a book, under certain terms and conditions. Many consumers wish to act like the ownership of both is the same, but it’s no more the case that you “own” your blogger page or gmail account, &c &c. Your nominal ownership, such as it is, is subject to your adherence to the terms and conditions you agree on with the actual owner.
I mean, whatever, I hate DRM on principle and think you should crack it too, but acting like doing so is not very much in defiance of the agreement you have made with both the retailer, publisher, author &c &c, of that material is not supportable. Cracking is cracking, and removing DRM on stuff you have purchased (while smart) is piracy.
But hey, you could always write a letter to the publisher to protest the use of DRM, right? And no, I do not mean this facetiously. I think everyone should do this.
Don’t hardcover’s encourage intellectual piracy?
All that book loaning. And used book giving/selling.
Read Moby Lives for an entertaining conspiracy theory about this move, involving Apple.
Also, if you want to know about some of the problems with Amazon, have a browse through his archives. (Hint: Amazon demands at least 50% of ebook profit, meaning that the publisher’s net on an ebook sale is nowhere near equivalent to the net on a HC sale.)
I don’t buy print books for myself. I will buy them for my grandmother, but for me it’s Kindle or nothing. Well, Vine, but I don’t pay for those. If I like a book, and these days that means I probably liked it on Kindle, I will buy print copies as gifts or donations.
When the Kennedy book was delayed in eBook, I bought the hardcover for my grandmother, which I assume they’d count as a win, but it’s a loss of a sale since I would have bought a Kindle copy for myself. So, two people read the hardcover, and now it can go to the USB.
I’m an impulse buyer who lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere. If I see a review or a recommendation I like, I immediately buy it on Kindle, because I don’t want to wait for it to be shipped and I don’t want to wait for my every 4-6 month journey to a place with a large bookstore. In fact, if you give me time to think about the purchase I realize I have a backlog of hundreds of books.
That pubs really think that it’s better to risk people standing at B&N *trying* to recall a title, or sticking it on their wish list and waiting, when by the time the thing is out in the right format the reader might be over it… There have been a few books that I would have bought, couldn’t, and then they got panned.
Laurel,I have no problem with e-book fans getting the format they want in a timely manner but I also see that this explosion of technology is causing many publishing folks to add another ball to their juggling act. I want a win-win for everyone involved,but it might be a while for all of that to sort itself out.
That’s not really anything exorbitant. They probably demand a few more points than your average retailer, but most brick-and-mortar bookstores take between 40 and 52 percent (typically around 46-48), depending on the publisher.
That’s for tradebooks, of course. For textbooks, it’s more like 20%.
I thought some people here might be interested in this article:
http://michaelhyatt.com/2009/12/the-end-of-book-publishing-as-we-know-it.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+michaelhyatt+(Michael+Hyatt)ublishing-as-we-know-it.html
I found it interesting that he says the cost of digital books will skyrocket. That confirms my theory that the print book profits are subsidizing the lower ebook price.
Oops. Not skyrocket. Get more expensive. Gah.
I shouldn’t post on a chocolate chip cookie high.
And the whole article is fascinating.
I really don’t understand this move by pubs at all. If a book comes out in hardcover with no e-format, I will get it at the library. When they finally do release the e-book, I won’t buy that either because as I said, I read it at the library. So that is zero dollars from me. How can that be better for them and for their authors?
Danielle (no the other Danielle):
“Right now, according to most accounts, including the NY Times, publishers are receiving roughly the exact same amount for every e-book sold as they do for new hardcover sales. Yes, Amazon and Sony and others are selling many e-books for $9.99, but that doesn’t mean publishers are making less money per title. The e-book retailers are taking loss leaders on e-books to sell more devices.”
I copy/pasted this from Nathan Bransford’s post yesterday. The full post is url=http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/12/should-publishers-delay-e-book-releases.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NathanBransford+(Nathan+Bransford+-+Literary+Agent)]here[/url].
The angst over releasing the eBook at the same time as the hardback is not about lost revenue on the hardback. It is about fear that the consumer will establish a new perceived value for the content and will no longer be willing to pay hardback price, even for a hardback. What they have overlooked, though, is a growing number of consumers want the eBook not because it is cheaper but because they prefer it. In this respect, it does not fit the paperback model they are trying to apply.
If I am frothing over a new release cost is not the issue. I would pay $25 for the content in either form. I just want to get it in my preferred form.
And Lady T: I agree that the publishers are propably overwhelmed but this has been ten years coming. Music industry. They have a model to learn from. Somebody smart is going to see this for the opportunity it is (Apple? Yet again?) and while everyone else clings to the old model they will be losing their shirts to the publisher that figures out how to make this work. Technology moves to face to play defensively.
Mangled the link. Sorry. Here it is if you want to cut and paste:
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/12/should-publishers-delay-e-book-releases.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+NathanBransford+(Nathan+Bransford+-+Literary+Agent)
Forgive me, I wasn’t thinking so much about pricing in my first post, though I see more clearly that LauraP did mention it.
The way I see it, there are three major issues here:
1) Format
2) Price
3) Release date
The question is: what’s the best combo of all three?
Personally, I think the most fair thing to do for all readers, especially in the instant-gratification world that other commenters pointed out, is to release all formats at one time. Of course, to do that, pricing may have to be variable over a stretch of time, with the price going down as time goes on, much the way the price of a DVD seems to drop over a 12-18 month time span following the initial release. Those who want a book at any price can have their instant gratification; those on a tighter budget can wait a little while. What those prices should be, I don’t know – I don’t know the view from inside a publishing house, and don’t know the exact cost and accounting involved, though I do acknowledge that every book has production costs.
As an aside, Mike Shatzkin had an excellent post on his blog yesterday that sheds light on some of the strategic thinking that may have gone into this latest move by the publishers:
http://www.idealog.com/blog/the-ebook-windowing-controversy-has-subtext
This current decision seems to be really just another move in a very long, drawn out battle for industry control between publisher and retailer.
Seth Godin had a recent good post about ebooks: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/12/the-magic-of-dynamic-pricing.html
To summarize: when you’re selling a digital product, the price doesn’t have to stay the same forever.
To apply to ebooks: Why not price the ebook the same as the hardcover while the hardcover is out, then drop the price to match the paperback price when the paperback is out? Maybe even drop the price further once the paperback has become part of the backlist? The people who want the book NOW pay more than the people who want the book cheap, but get it sooner.
Let people pay for the book what it’s worth TO THEM.
But this has been the standard model for “name authors” or “big books” for ages: HB first, then 6 months to year later Trade or MM. If NY wants to cling to this model and treat eBooks as the new MM release, I don’t really think it’s that big a deal. *shrug* I’m certainly not going to bother getting upset about it (what irks me is when the MM has already been released and the damn eBook is still priced like a HB!).
Most of the authors who come out in HB are either HUGE (so their fans will remember, since fans don’t just let a favorite author slip off their radar, plus there will be a second big push when the MM release happens to remind the more casual reader) or they’re being christened as the next new BIG thing, and they’ll have a new HB out when the MM/eBook of the last one hits, and that new release will remind people about the book they skipped over in HB. It’s the model they use now, and it would appear that they’re perfectly happy with it.
Or maybe I just don’t really give a shit because the books I’d be willing to buy in HB are rarely published in that format in the first place.
It’s m observation that Kindle readers will not pay hardcover prices for eBooks. Many are mad when they have to pay more than 9.99. My personal max is 14.99.
Precisely. For whatever reason most people are not going to spend more than $10 for an e-book. Further, there’s a mindset among many that if it’s on the internet it should be free, or nearly so. Amazon and now B&N price e-books low because they’re not making money off e-books. E-books are merely a way to sell their e-readers. Much like Apple/iPods/iTunes. Their profit-base is not in content.
So that’s great for the retailer, they have another profit-base, but what are publishers supposed to do when instead of getting half of $25 they get half of $10, if that? And the authors who typically get less than 10% of what the publisher gets. And they have to deal with pirates as well. At least in the music industry artists have another revenue source; performances. Publishers and authors do not.
Making e-books available at the same time as hardbacks only makes sense if the buyer will pay hardback price. Even on this thread it’s been made clear that they will not. So, those who prefer this format will wait less than half the amount of time that those who prefer paperbacks do.
As a Kindle owner (although the damn thing is broken right now) and a HB / PB reader, I wonder why the publishers don’t look at this as a “multiple route to market / multiple pricing strategies over time” opportunity. (Granted, I know next to nothing about pricing strategies and profitability in publishing, so YMMV…)
Specifically, I feel like as a consumer of books, I’d like to be offered the choice to either buy the hardcover or a comparably priced ebook version at the time of release. If I don’t want to pay that much, I’d be happy to wait for the paperback version and/or the analogous price for an eBook. Because really, there are authors who I want to pay that much for and then there are authors / books that aren’t worth it… by giving me a choice to pick my format and pay the appropriate price at that given point in time, the publisher is keeping me happy and reaping the same profit (or I’d hope, something close to it.)
Perhaps this goes back to the fact that I know nothing about the industry, but this seems fairly simple… like a business case study—> how to make the most profit from your product at any given time in the product lifecycle…
I just make an appointment entry in my digital calendar. On 01/16/10, there’s an appointment that says “Kinsale, Laura – Lessons in French.”
Laurel writes:
By that argument, the cost of producing a print book should’ve gone down too, because up to a certain point, the costs of making a print book or an ebook are the same: the cost of salaries for the editors and editorial assistants and production coordinators and marketeers and business office, the cost of copyediting and proofreading, the cost of cover design, the electric bill, the software upgrades, the cost of generating the royalty statements and checks….
I certainly hope (and do think it’s likely) that it’ll get cheaper and easier to take a properly tagged manuscript and convert it into needed ebook (and print book) formats, especially if the format wars do settle on ePub. I also suspect that prices will be better once the publisher can reasonably expect to sell 10,000 copies of an ebook rather than 100. But there’s only so much you can trim; you’re not going to get cheaper copyediting unless you pay the copyeditors less or simply do less of it.
Castiron is right to some degree, but the server-side of things has been decreasing in price (per MB or per GB) for a long time, and there’s no sign that’ll stop soon. And since ebooks aren’t likely to increase in size, that means companies will be paying less to deliver them to customers as time passes. Unlike with delivering hardcovers, where gas prices can begin cutting into profits again (who here thinks gas will really stay below $3/g forever?).
I’d like to know how much the production-only side (sending the finished product to printers, producing copies, sending it out to distributors who send it out to bookstores, etc) costs publishers. Castiron is right that the salaries of those involved are likely a huge chunk of the cost, but if a paperback is $7-$9, why would the hardback increase the cost by $15 or more unless it was just simply expecting people to pay more for the same product? And by that token, they could probably still make money on ebooks without pricing them the same as hardbacks.
I don’t buy many hardcovers, but if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I want the pretty “collector’s item” book. And I only buy books I’m sure will be keepers in HC so I don’t mind finding space for them.
All the same, I like having the ebook, especially for a reread. So I absolutely love Baen who provide the ebook for $6 when the HC comes out (and without DRM). I buy both and they get two sales. I just wish they published more books I wanted to read. But they publish thee of my favourite authors, so I can’t really complain.
All the same, I admit I don’t really like paying hardcover prices for ebooks – like I said, for that much money I want to have something physical to show for it. So I’m more likely to get it from the library or wait as I have to do for the paperback. Sure it would be nice to get the book sooner for less than the HC price, but I used to wait for paperbacks and I don’t really mind waiting for a paperback price.
BUT…
The thing that really, really annoys me about a lot of ebook retailers is that the ebook STAYS at the HC price for sometimes years after the paperback is released. I do think the ebook price should go down when the MMP comes out. There’s a book I wanted to read, but it stayed at HC price for about TWO YEARS after the paperback came out. So I didn’t buy it. About a month ago I saw the price had finally dropped to MMP price, so I bought it. Keeping the price high didn’t force a more expensive sale. It just delayed it. And really, it was luck I saw the price had finally dropped. If I hadn’t, I would still be waiting. After all, it wasn’t a book I had to read right away, just one I wanted to read someday.
Sarah – my request not to encourage e-piracy was directed at the stanza in your poem where it implies you’ll go online to look for an alternate copy of the book made available from e-pirates who have scanned all the pages. I’m glad to hear you don’t condone that act, but then you might want to rework that particular stanza (which I quoted above) to be more clear. That in fact the publisher’s acts are what is contributing to e-piracy and that if something isn’t available you just won’t buy it. Now or ever.
I won’t buy e-books with DRM cause I’ve heard such horror stories I don’t want to experience it for myself. My reference about e-piracy had absolutely nothing to do with DRM or cracking the DRM code so you can actually enjoy your e-books. Thanks.
If a new release book is out only in HC, then I will pay HC prices for the ebook IF it is DRM free. With DRM, natch.
In this case, I’m paying a premium for earlier access. It irritates me, but I’ll deal. The HC people are paying for earlier access AND a more expensive format. I am dammned if I’ll pay a premium for something I don’t get to keep. If it’s more expensive than the HC? Won’t buy it at all, regardless of the DRM.
If it is out in HC, Trade, and /or MMPB then the ebook should match the cheapest version available. DRM free, preferably. (I strip it anyway, but I don’t like to encourage vendors to impose DRM by giving them my trade.)
I will not pay more for an ebook if there is a cheaper format currently available. It defies logic. Although as a UK customer I am screwed in this policy at the moment – due to the vat on ebooks. (Yes, I’ve already written my MP a pointed letter about this already.) In that case, I see if removing the 17% vat make the ebook and the other format comparable prices. If it does, I buy the ebook, because that’s not the publisher’s fault.
If it doesn’t, then sadly, the author has lost a sale. Possibly permanently. I may, or may not remember to check back at a later date to see if the ebook has dropped to a reasonable price.
Whatever happens, if it’s a book I intended to buy as an ebook, then I won’t buy it in any other format. I have a list of authors who I buy in HB / PB and I’m pretty rigid about it due to storage limitations. New authors definitely don’t get a look in; if it’s not in e-format, or it’s over priced in eformat, then tough luck, no matter how much ‘buzz’ there is. If they’re lucky and they’re British, I might borrow a copy from the library, and they might get a few pence back from the PLR.
It happens a fair bit, but there are always other books, other authors, so it’s not really a problem for me. Sucks to be them though.
I personally have completely embraced e-books because as many have pointed out here, the absolute convenience of purchasing books without driving in my car to the book store. I will not say NEVER but I don’t really ever intend to go back to real books now that I have this medium available. With that said, I am so not stressing over this issue for a few reasons: (1) I do believe it will become apparent within a short amount of time the huge mistake publishers are making by NOT embracing this format as a part of their business model. (2) Quite simply, if they make me wait for a book, I will make them wait for my money. So instead of me purchasing a new release, I will spend my dollars on someone else’s work and chances are I won’t remember that early release. This total opens up the world for independent publishers. They should step into the chasm created by the larger publishing houses. No sweat as far as I am concerned, there are too many really good books. Like someone said earlier, since Stephen King delayed his book in e-format, I haven’t even thought about pre-ordering it, which by the way the price was dropped on Amazon to $7.99 – was this as an apology for not releasing it the same day as the HC? Could be.
I’m not sure I understand the economics here. I saw somewhere someone did the math to prove that ebooks were not that much less expensive to produce than dead-tree books, and that Amazon was taking a loss on each of their $9.99 downloaded Kindle books.
but I’ve been an audible.com member for 5 years, and I”ve been buying downloaded audio books for about $10 each for all that time – and that’s not only paying the author’s and publisher’s cost, but the cost of the performance too. And nobody says that Audible is selling all those audio books at a loss.
Why can I buy audio books for $10 but have to pay more than that for a downloaded ebook?
to add to what I just said, nobody is delaying the audio book release 4-6 months to drive HB sales – I know I get my Nora Roberts audio fix pretty much on the same day or within days of seeing the first dead-tree version (whether hb or pb) go on sale. How can I pay *less* for Bed of Roses in audio than I did for the trade paperback?
not that I”m objecting, mind you…
Becca, I don’t remember who Nora Roberts’ publisher is, but so far, the ebook version of her new hardcovers have been available the same day. I hope this doesn’t change.
It’s the publisher.
at what price do the ebook versions come out? at the same as HB or less?