Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

[Thailandnotes]

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...ef=global-home


I wonder if there are any librarians on itulip. This article and the comments that follow, raise several questions for me: How much do libraries have to pay for ebooks and how often do they have to renew those licenses? Or, in other words, is lending someone a book a thing of the pass? (Right now, you can sign up for Amazon Prime and “borrow” one book a month “free.” Whoop T Doo!”)

Amazon is accused of selling ebooks at a loss (9.99) and its Kindles at cost in order to gain dominance. When the ebook price = the print price, and then the ebook price < the print price, and then the ebook price is > print price, the consumer can't help but be confused. Anyone out there not confused?

The retailer's model is to get you to buy their device thereby forcing you to buy their content. How is that different from Columbia Records putting out a Bob Dylan record that only plays well on a Columbia Records stereo?

[c1ue]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

The retailer's model is to get you to buy their device thereby forcing you to buy their content. How is that different from Columbia Records putting out a Bob Dylan record that only plays well on a Columbia Records stereo?

There isn't.

The sad part of all this is that the price of ebooks these days is higher than that of the paperbacks in many instances.

Just goes to show you that the price was never truly a function of operational costs as it was about pricing power.

In this particular case, there isn't a 'good guy'. Amazon used its market presence to force low e-book pricing in order to promote its Kindle platform.

Apple tried to use its App store to get around this.

Alien vs. Predator: whoever wins, we lose.

[davidstvz]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

In paper, book costs varied wildly. You had three basic categories (with prices reaching to the higher end of the range in recent years):

Paperback (mostly fiction) for pop consumption: less than 10 bucks for a small, thick and dense rectangle of dead tree

Paperback (fiction or non) for more discerning audience... usually with larger print and book dimensions, but thinner (shorter word count): 10 to 20 bucks

Hardback (fiction or non): new book with big enough audience to demand a premium for early sales: more than 20 bucks


I see similar pricing in ebooks, yet still far cheaper. New books are immediately available as ebooks even if in the paper sphere they are only available as hardcover. The ebooks cost much less than the hard cover books. Probably there is a higher profit margin, but I'm saving a bundle. Older books come down in price to compete against the cheaper paper versions that are released. Throw away-fiction costs about a dollar less than the paper equivalent if its in demand. If it's something old (not licensed), its dirt cheap if not free (though the pay versions may be better formatted and edited). I haven't noticed anything surprising or offensive in the ebook market.

[jiimbergin]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

In paper, book costs varied wildly. You had three basic categories (with prices reaching to the higher end of the range in recent years):

Paperback (mostly fiction) for pop consumption: less than 10 bucks for a small, thick and dense rectangle of dead tree

Paperback (fiction or non) for more discerning audience... usually with larger print and book dimensions, but thinner (shorter word count): 10 to 20 bucks

Hardback (fiction or non): new book with big enough audience to demand a premium for early sales: more than 20 bucks


I see similar pricing in ebooks, yet still far cheaper. New books are immediately available as ebooks even if in the paper sphere they are only available as hardcover. The ebooks cost much less than the hard cover books. Probably there is a higher profit margin, but I'm saving a bundle. Older books come down in price to compete against the cheaper paper versions that are released. Throw away-fiction costs about a dollar less than the paper equivalent if its in demand. If it's something old (not licensed), its dirt cheap if not free (though the pay versions may be better formatted and edited). I haven't noticed anything surprising or offensive in the ebook market.

+1
I have not bought an e reader, I use my smart phone. I like the smaller format better than my wife's kindle.

[jk]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

why did you title this thread "itunes settles..." when it is really about the doj suing apple, and apple NOT settling?

[Thailandnotes]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

why did you title this thread "itunes settles..." when it is really about the doj suing apple, and apple NOT settling?

My mistake. Several articles initially suggested three of the five publishers had agreed to settle with the other two and Apple likely to follow. Headlines are quite different 24 hours later.

1.) I was hoping someone could shed some definitive light on claims that ebooks are expensive to produce. Many writers repeat that preparing books for multiple readers is a big expense. For now, I'll go with Clue's idea that it boils down to pricing power.

2.) It's clear Amazon has a chance to eliminate publishers while publishers destroy libraries as we know them...

Soaring prices publishers charge for ebooks. 300 % increase in charges to libraries for classics while popular books remain unavailable...

“On Wednesday, Oberhausen bought Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith for $40 via OverDrive. On Thursday, the price was $120. The print version of the book, with the library’s discount, is a little over $20 (it retails at $40). For Blessings by Anna Quindlen the ebook price went from $15 to $45.”

http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/...s-300-percent/


“Amazon is intent on taking over the bulk of the publishing business by capturing key layers of intermediation. At some point, for the market's upper crust, by deploying agents under the leadership of Mr Kirshbaum and of its regional surrogates, Amazon will "own" the entire talent-scouting food chain. For the bottom-end, a tech company like Amazon is well-positioned for real-time monitoring and early detection of an author gaining traction in e-sales, agitating on the blogosphere or buzzing on social networks”...long article on Kirshbaum in Bloomberg Businessweek.

[Milton Kuo]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

1.) I was hoping someone could shed some definitive light on claims that ebooks are expensive to produce. Many writers repeat that preparing books for multiple readers is a big expense. For now, I'll go with Clue's idea that it boils down to pricing power.

I don't work in publishing but the claim that e-books are expensive to produce sounds like a bald-faced lie. In today's world, I cannot imagine a publishing company where all editing and typesetting is not done on computer.

Where a physical book requires a data source containing the text and all layout information be used to drive the machinery that prints and binds books, that same data source can be pumped through a software program that generates a file in a format appropriate for an e-book platform. If anything, e-books should be far, far cheaper to produce than physical books because you don't need all the machinery and associated input supply chain to manufacture product, nevermind the substantially less expensive distribution costs.

The publisher that doesn't have the software to convert their data into e-book format has failed to wisely run its business. Not having such conversion software would be akin to having an automobile manufacturing plant where there is absolutely no automation.

[jk]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

the book publishers are several years behind the music industry, but following the same road.

[jpatter666]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

When my brother's book came out Amazon priced the ebook for *more* than the hardcover.

He was really ticked because multiple people gave him 1-star reviews over the ebook price thinking he had set it -- was purely an Amazon/publisher thing and he had zero control.

[c1ue]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

I don't work in publishing but the claim that e-books are expensive to produce sounds like a bald-faced lie. In today's world, I cannot imagine a publishing company where all editing and typesetting is not done on computer.

I agree. Baen Publishing offers a number of its titles for free, and the free versions support all manner of e-book formats. Eric Flint, one of the Baen authors and editors, has spoken at length about the publishing business from his perspective as a successful science fiction/fantasy writer. He believes that the existing model is wrong because discovery is the biggest challenge facing any author, and that once discovered the economic behavior of consumers is very much 1st rush = money.

Thus in a real sense the book publishers operate much as the music companies do: a few big names which drive massive profit, and a long tail of prospects which serve both as a 'farm system' and as pricing background for the big names. Control of the pricing background is necessary otherwise the big name prices are harder to justify.

When my brother's book came out Amazon priced the ebook for *more* than the hardcover.

I also commonly see e-books priced higher than paperbacks. This is even less justifiable.

[davidstvz]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

Amazon usually states clearly the list price of the paper book and shows you how much money you're saving. If they think they can get away with charging more, what can you do? CDs cost more than tapes even though they were cheaper to manufacture. It's about what is in demand. Part of the reason I like ebooks is to save money, but the other part is to save space. Hence, if they ended up being priced the same as paper, I'd still buy the ebooks in most cases. There are a few books where I would prefer paper even if it costs more. I prefer to read really good fiction on paper for example.

Anyway, let them price it how they want and I'll decide what to buy. Currently, I feel I'm getting books cheap so I'm buying more books with time at a premium, I'm skimming some of them or not finishing them (something I feel less guilty of when I paid 33% to 50% less). In the end of things, most of the books I'm buying I don't need to be reading to begin with. If they get stupid, I'll just buy a lot fewer books.

[c1ue]

Re: Itunes settles with DOJ on ebooks

If they think they can get away with charging more, what can you do?

I don't think anyone here is arguing that Amazon or Apple or whoever cannot or should not charge whatever they feel like.

However, the reality is that ebooks both entail a capital investment (the reader), are cheaper to sell/store/distribute, and have potential future transaction costs (8 track to cassette to CD --> Nook to Kindle to Ipad).

The original notion that somehow lower costs of publication/distribution of books would then lead to some sort of revolution - well, it seems the revolution has been detoured by good old fashioned business.