4 ms·

While i agree with most of this, including having an online option, the big thing that stands out for me is this paragraph which basically said "Online pricing

by verelo 15y ago

While i agree with most of this, including having an online option, the big thing that stands out for me is this paragraph which basically said "Online pricing does not make sense": B. Get a handle on your pricing for digital media. Look, we understand why a paperback costs $7. You have to buy paper, glue and ink. It has to be written, edited, printed, shipped and stocked. And each of those people wants to cover their costs and make a profit. But when you write an ebook, and all you have to do is hit 'copy' to make another sale, you have no business charging $7 each. Remember before when I said I'm not downloading to try and stick it to you? In a situation like this, I'm downloading because you're trying to stick it to me.

dspillett 15y ago
This is only true for old books, like when you are buying a copy of a technical book from several years ago or something that is now public domain. For new books the price you pay includes the actually making of the book. Paying the authors, editors and related management. If the material is sourced from elsewhere that isn't public domain then there will be licensing costs. For the first x0,000 sales or more of a book this is a significant part of the price you pay - a much larger portion in relation to distribution costs than many people think. So if you are using this as a justification for pirating, for instance, a recent book from O'Rielly then your argument is seriously misguided. You are probably right for that kindle edition of Shakespear's plays, but not new works.
- abhaga 15y ago
  Completely agree. Another dimension along which it varies is the genre of the book. A new romance novel does not need as much research or effort put in as many of the academic books (not textbooks). Such books need extra support for the authors and need more effort in editing and peer review. However they are also pirated at the same price - 0. Also with digital goods, once you purchase them, you get a life long license to download them from the vendor. With the physical goods, it is a one time sale. So in effect with every digital sale, vendors have a much longer liability to provide you the access to content. Maintaining such repositories of content has ongoing costs which must be worked into the price of digital goods.
  - JadeNB 15y ago
    > Also with digital goods, once you purchase them, you get a life long license to download them from the vendor. Who says so? I know it's true for O'Reilly, but most music providers, for example, don't work this way. If a vendor doesn't want to take this responsibility, then it can just simply state what access it is willing to provide.
- verelo 15y ago
  Totally agree. Big thing for me is that I feel there is value to a physical book, I appreciate that effort was spend to ship it to me and i have something to show for it. There is an expense associated with generating a book (regardless of the medium) however its so much easier to revise and re-release an electronic product...i just don't feel that as a consumer, anyone has done a good enough job of justifying why i should pay more for not getting a physical product to feel like I'm getting a good deal. The issue could simply be that my brain is broken from years of legacy consumer behavior.
krschultz 15y ago
People are overestimating what it costs to actually print and ship a book by a huge amount. Printing is pretty much the most efficient manufacturing process in the world. You make thousands and thousands at a time on a dedicated machine that runs 24/7. You can put hundreds of thousands of them into a container, and ship that container across an ocean for $4,000. Or you can truck it around the country for that price too. And there are plenty of distributors that can drop ship them for you. Or you can just dump a couple containers at an Amazon distribution center and let them handle it all. I would guess that $1-2 of a $7 paperback is paper, printing, and transport. Remember, we print free newspapers everyday by the millions. And we flush paper down the toilet. And we wipe our hands with a big piece of paper with printing and texture on them and throw it away without a second thought. Paper is basically the cheapest 'thing' we have in the world today.
- ktsmith 15y ago
  I agree that in many cases the costs of producing a printed version of a product vs the digital version is being over estimated. In my case at least the pricing of digital goods is losing authors sales any way. I'm not going to pay $9.99 for an e-book when the same book is available in paperback for $7.99. I see this constantly and books that I would have otherwise tried I simply skip. If we simply say that printing costs and digital distribution costs are very similar due to the efficiencies of our manufacturing and shipping systems I'll accept that argument. Charge me the same price for the digital version then, not more.
- grecy 15y ago
  > I would guess that $1-2 of a $7 paperback is paper, printing, and transport. OK. Every digital book in existence should be $1-$2 less than it's paper equivalent. If it's not, that's the content creator trying to rip consumers off.

by verelo 15y ago

dspillett 15y ago

This is only true for old books, like when you are buying a copy of a technical book from several years ago or something that is now public domain. For new books the price you pay includes the actually making of the book. Paying the authors, editors and related management. If the material is sourced from elsewhere that isn't public domain then there will be licensing costs. For the first x0,000 sales or more of a book this is a significant part of the price you pay - a much larger portion in relation to distribution costs than many people think. So if you are using this as a justification for pirating, for instance, a recent book from O'Rielly then your argument is seriously misguided. You are probably right for that kindle edition of Shakespear's plays, but not new works.

abhaga 15y ago
Completely agree. Another dimension along which it varies is the genre of the book. A new romance novel does not need as much research or effort put in as many of the academic books (not textbooks). Such books need extra support for the authors and need more effort in editing and peer review. However they are also pirated at the same price - 0. Also with digital goods, once you purchase them, you get a life long license to download them from the vendor. With the physical goods, it is a one time sale. So in effect with every digital sale, vendors have a much longer liability to provide you the access to content. Maintaining such repositories of content has ongoing costs which must be worked into the price of digital goods.
- JadeNB 15y ago
  > Also with digital goods, once you purchase them, you get a life long license to download them from the vendor. Who says so? I know it's true for O'Reilly, but most music providers, for example, don't work this way. If a vendor doesn't want to take this responsibility, then it can just simply state what access it is willing to provide.
verelo 15y ago
Totally agree. Big thing for me is that I feel there is value to a physical book, I appreciate that effort was spend to ship it to me and i have something to show for it. There is an expense associated with generating a book (regardless of the medium) however its so much easier to revise and re-release an electronic product...i just don't feel that as a consumer, anyone has done a good enough job of justifying why i should pay more for not getting a physical product to feel like I'm getting a good deal. The issue could simply be that my brain is broken from years of legacy consumer behavior.

krschultz 15y ago

People are overestimating what it costs to actually print and ship a book by a huge amount. Printing is pretty much the most efficient manufacturing process in the world. You make thousands and thousands at a time on a dedicated machine that runs 24/7. You can put hundreds of thousands of them into a container, and ship that container across an ocean for $4,000. Or you can truck it around the country for that price too. And there are plenty of distributors that can drop ship them for you. Or you can just dump a couple containers at an Amazon distribution center and let them handle it all. I would guess that $1-2 of a $7 paperback is paper, printing, and transport. Remember, we print free newspapers everyday by the millions. And we flush paper down the toilet. And we wipe our hands with a big piece of paper with printing and texture on them and throw it away without a second thought. Paper is basically the cheapest 'thing' we have in the world today.

ktsmith 15y ago
I agree that in many cases the costs of producing a printed version of a product vs the digital version is being over estimated. In my case at least the pricing of digital goods is losing authors sales any way. I'm not going to pay $9.99 for an e-book when the same book is available in paperback for $7.99. I see this constantly and books that I would have otherwise tried I simply skip. If we simply say that printing costs and digital distribution costs are very similar due to the efficiencies of our manufacturing and shipping systems I'll accept that argument. Charge me the same price for the digital version then, not more.
grecy 15y ago
> I would guess that $1-2 of a $7 paperback is paper, printing, and transport. OK. Every digital book in existence should be $1-$2 less than it's paper equivalent. If it's not, that's the content creator trying to rip consumers off.