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oldadjunct
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« on: May 12, 2011, 05:57:42 PM » |
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I just ordered two new books, one a pre-order, both hard bound, neither on sale. What struck me was that they were both priced in the mid-teens and only a dollar and change more than the Kindle versions.
I am not complaining, but in what world is it possible that a physical book ~$2 more than an electronic version?
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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Fiction is baseball; Rhetoric is football.
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tee_bee
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« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2011, 06:01:08 PM » |
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I just ordered two new books, one a pre-order, both hard bound, neither on sale. What struck me was that they were both priced in the mid-teens and only a dollar and change more than the Kindle versions.
I am not complaining, but in what world is it possible that a physical book ~$2 more than an electronic version?
The real one. Actually printing a book is not the most expensive part of production. And prices may well vary with supply and demand, etc. An economist could explain this. Something about substitutability, etc. |
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daniel_von_flanagan
<redacted>
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 9,463
Works all day. Posts all night. Needs sleep.
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« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2011, 06:10:38 PM » |
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In many cases the e-version is more expensive than the paper one. Plus, you don;t really own it; for example, you can't sell it in a yard sale. - DvF
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The U.S. Education Department is establishing a new national research center to study colleges' ability to successfully educate the country's growing numbers of academically underprepared administrators.
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oldadjunct
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« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2011, 06:32:56 PM » |
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In many cases the e-version is more expensive than the paper one. Plus, you don;t really own it; for example, you can't sell it in a yard sale. - DvF
I would imagine both of these recent mass-market trade books would have originally been set up electronically, neither of them have extensive graphs, illustrations or even photographs. Your second point would seem to argue for an even bigger spread in the pricing. I still don't get it. |
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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Fiction is baseball; Rhetoric is football.
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offthemarket
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« Reply #4 on: May 12, 2011, 07:29:53 PM » |
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Exhibit 43 in the case against electronic books.
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bioteacher
chocolate loving
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 3,743
Confused and sad. Or happy. I'm not sure...
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« Reply #5 on: May 12, 2011, 10:29:14 PM » |
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One big cause of the spike in ebook prices is the agency model many publishers have gone to. Here is one of many threads discussing the issue. That said, I have fallen head over heels in love with my color nook. I was very, very reluctant to take the plunge. But living in a little house that is bulging at the seams, plus the ever-growing piles of books that I acquire, and tripping one too many times on the 2 foot high stack of books on the floor by my bed convinced me that there was a place for ebooks. I got a nook so I can save a copy of all of my books onto an SD card and not ever lose them due to Big Company taking them back (as happened with Kindle/Amazon). I have discovered I can check books out of the local university and public libraries at 3 AM, read them, and never worry about paying a late fee. I have read more books, in more diverse genres, in the last 2 months than I did in the last 2 years. And that's saying a lot since I'm an avid reader, a library regular, and a bookstore junkie. I refuse to pay more for an ebook than I would for a traditional book. I want to support authors on a living wage. But I also think a package of electrons should save a dollar or two over hundreds of pages of paper. I'm also very reluctant to support any publisher that won't support the lend-me option. So far, the only books I have purchased have had lend-me support. (Lending sells books, too! Word of mouth and sharing is how I find new great reads, and then I go find other books by those authors.) I also will continue to buy physical books for my kids. I want them to fall in love with books, not computers. But at bedtime, you'll find me snuggled under the covers reading on my nook more often than not. |
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« Last Edit: May 12, 2011, 10:29:39 PM by bioteacher »
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My work ethic is somewhere in Lake Buena Vista. I need to go look for it.
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daniel_von_flanagan
<redacted>
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Posts: 9,463
Works all day. Posts all night. Needs sleep.
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« Reply #6 on: May 12, 2011, 11:40:23 PM » |
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It also doesn't make sense that textbooks in my field, written by US authors and published by US publishers, often sell at amazon.co.uk for half the price on amazon.com. The price is a combination of greed and what the market will bear. - DvF
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The U.S. Education Department is establishing a new national research center to study colleges' ability to successfully educate the country's growing numbers of academically underprepared administrators.
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oldfullprof
Not really retired...
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 7,755
Representation is not reproduction!
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« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2011, 12:05:23 AM » |
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I just got the Nook. Love it.
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Someone please tell me to start entering data, rather than screwing off here.
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totoro
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« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2011, 12:11:57 AM » |
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It's all about willingness to pay. The book market has always been full of price discrimination. Paperbacks don't cost much less to make than hardbacks but sell for much less typically....
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alleyoxenfree
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« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2011, 12:53:11 AM » |
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It has nothing to do with costs of production.
Amazon wants to sell its Kindle, and that means undercutting its own prices on paper books in order to sell Kindle books.
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oldadjunct
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« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2011, 09:53:26 AM » |
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Bioteacher, I had not heard about Agency 5, thanks.
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Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Fiction is baseball; Rhetoric is football.
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melba_frilkins
Doing laundry.
Member-Moderator
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 8,136
Doing laundry (still)
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« Reply #11 on: May 16, 2011, 02:37:00 PM » |
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It has nothing to do with costs of production.
Amazon wants to sell its Kindle, and that means undercutting its own prices on paper books in order to sell Kindle books.
But wouldn't that suggest that the e-books should be MUCH cheaper than hard copies? Instead the e-books are only slightly cheaper. (And never mind the price of used books on Amazon. I was actually looking at Amazon e-books the other day, but said no way, they are double the price of used books.) Thinking about it further, the relatively high prices of e-books makes less sense when you take into account that Amazon usually offers free shipping for books, that is they pay the shipping costs (if the order is $25+). |
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tee_bee
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« Reply #12 on: May 16, 2011, 02:41:49 PM » |
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The price is a combination of greed and what the market will bear. - DvF
There. Now an economist would recognize this claim. |
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tee_bee
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« Reply #14 on: May 16, 2011, 05:22:55 PM » |
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No, I don't, because I don't usually attribute human attributes to corporations. And, indeed, in the example you cite, the price may not reflect putative "greed," because one of the inputs is actually cheaper than it should be as a matter of law. If greed equals "utility maximization," then we all do it. But I do hate high textbook prices, because other actors are willing to pay absurd prices. Which is why the textbook I wrote costs half its nearest competitor. Ok, so then I should say "my publisher doesn't appear to be greedy." |
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