Since Amazon started pushing Kindle hard, we have been on the company’s case for selling e-books for too high of a price. Those $9.99 e-books do save people money, considering that hard-cover books sell for much more than that. At the same time, people can’t lend Amazon e-books, nor can they sell them. When a few publishers announced e-book price hikes, that further aggravated e-book fans. After all, how do publishers expect to charge $14.99 for e-books when they cost much less to publish in comparison to regular books. Could Wired.com be right about consumers overestimating cost savings for e-book publishers?
Publishers do price ebooks a little higher than necessary, because they’re concerned about devaluing people’s perception of books. They’re worried that if they sell the digital editions for too little, they’ll have to lower prices for the paper editions as well, which would undercut their main source of revenue,
said Larry Doyle, writer, to Wired. Wired.com may be right about the overestimation part but lets not underestimate publishers’ greed either. E-books can’t be free and those who believe they should be sold for just a couple of dollars are not being realistic. The costs of developing, protecting, and publishing e-books are still high. But over the long run, e-books are much cheaper to produce than regular books. The issue of piracy is there but can’t justify price hikes by publishers.
The e-book industry has been around for quite some time and is maturing all the time. But publishers still have ways to go before they get it right in this industry. A better pricing scheme is certainly required and consumers need to have more flexibility with what they can do with their e-books. It may be time for Amazon to work with publishers to start an e-book subscription business model. Such model could not only boost Amazon’s e-book sales, it could keep prices lower for consumers. We have seen the movie and music industries face similar challenges. E-books are here to stay regardless of how differently publishers and consumers see things.
In your opinion, are e-books too expensive?
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7 comments
#1Mojo YugenAugust 31, 2010, 8:32 am
Well quotes like these (from the Wired.com article) don't really help:
"Tacking an e onto a book requires antipiracy software, digital warehousing, extra legal support, and programmers to adapt each title for Android, iPhone, Kindle, and all the other formats. "
Any current book already exists in electronic form. You don't need "programmers to adapt each title". You run it through one program that spits out the various formats. Same for DRM, they aren't hand-coding it for each title. (And don't get me started if they even need DRM.) "Digital warehousing"? Again, they are already storing electronic copies of these book. Keeping a few more formats adds a few pennies per title.
And what's this about needing distributors? What are they distributing again? Bits? You can't tell me that's as expensive as distributing physical books.
The bottom line is that the publishing industry is changing and they don't like it. They will make less money and employee less people.
What about other savings
#2CyrusAugust 31, 2010, 8:51 am
I agree. I don't know where Wired.com was going with that. eBooks shouldn't be free but trying to sell them for $14.99 is just too much in my opinion.
#3GregSeptember 20, 2010, 2:01 pm
E-books are way too expensive. As long as you can get the used version of a paperback for less, on Amazon or somewhere. Or with a Borders discount coupon.The price of e-books should be less than used $5. or less. I like Digital readers and have used a PDA to read free books, but hate DRM of any stripe. Forget the I-Pad, would consider a reader for $100 or less, maybe $25 more for a full color screen. Otherwise wait for better technology, such as Mirasol. Still wouldn't bother if e-book prices remain high, and in proprietary DRM formats. A subscription model sounds interesting at $1. to $2. a book at most. Most people would like to pay the author something yet with used books…..nothing.
Hard to get someone to read a book you thought was good ( or music ), you're competing with cable tv, sports , movies, internet etc…. Reading? Why pay a premium.
#4LouiseJanuary 1, 2011, 9:58 pm
We like our new Kindle, but as I scour for (affordable) e-books, I am feeling like we've been taken advantage of.
#5Jo A.March 15, 2011, 2:38 pm
If you buy the Sony e-reader, you'll be able to check out ebooks from your local library free of charge. I love my Sony PRS-300, it's not fancy, in that it doesn't have wireless capability, but it's wonderful to have the freedom to read so many library books for free. I would never buy any e-readers that force you to purchase from them only, for example the Amazon Kindle.
#6JadeJuly 12, 2011, 9:30 am
16 months since the last post, sadly the situation is no better. Ebooks are too expensive considering what you get. Crappy books are free or cheap, but I've found that to stock up my nook with the books I want, it is AT LEAST twice as expensive as buying a clean book. Example: There are 3 unnamed books that I want, none of them newer than 7 years. To buy the nook books it would run $39. I have found these clean used books in print for $19 with lots of shipping. Library books expire and therefore are useless for this example.
I estimate that the library I desire of classics(cheap) and non-fiction stuff would run several times the cost of the device. When the used book store sells books for 3/$1.
Looks like this is yet another overpriced technical goodie to sit along with the Segway.
#7CyrusJuly 12, 2011, 3:56 pm
I agree with you. Ebooks remain expensive. I have written time and time again about the publishing industry shooting itself in the foot with its pricing strategy. E-readers should be free at the very least.
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