5 ms·

As much as people are willing to pay for it? The price sends a signal, and a higher price signals "THIS IS WORTH SOMETHING." Nearly all the internet is free s

As much as people are willing to pay for it? The price sends a signal, and a higher price signals "THIS IS WORTH SOMETHING." Nearly all the internet is free so people assume it's worth $0.00. My advice to Kindle writers and App Store devs, don't fall for the $9.99 or $4.99 "caps". Charge what it's worth, charge where you make the profit and sales you're comfortable with, and don't worry about the whiners.

ashleyw 17y ago
It's easy to price too high though. Would you rather sell 10 at £4.99, or 100 at 99p? Though of course I'm not saying you should price at 99p just because everyone else does, just remember that generally, the higher price your app, the less people will buy it. Find the optimal price point for your app, to make the most profit. eBooks do kind of have an upper hand though — people have been buying paper books for years, at least it has a proven base price for the market (plus a very low piracy rate). While on the other hand, as you said, the majority of people still don't put a value on software…
- Retric 17y ago
  I think the publisher needs to compare their cost, risk, and proffit in the old system vs the new system. It's not just the average price that droped but also the risk of printing copy's that they don't sell. A reduction in risk often results in a cost reduction. However, hardbacks have a significant price primium because softcopy's are still their for the price consious. A policy of charging 15$ for everything less than a year (or 6 months) old and 8$ for everthing older than that would provide the same benifit.
Confusion 17y ago
I sure hope people aren't willing to pay $30 for a Kindle version of a book that sells for $35. They don't don't need storage space or stocks, they don't have to print it or take a loss on shipping. All those advantages and that is supposed to save only $5? We're being ripped off here. I wouldn't consider that a proper prize if they gave me the Kindle for free. Cut it to $10 and I'll start considering whether it's worth buying the Kindle.
- mtoledo 17y ago
  You shouldn't be making your decision on how much money they are saving, but on how much value you are getting.
  - anigbrowl 17y ago
    Oh yes you should. They (publishers) set the price of things, so if they're not having to pay for any of the things that they always said makes printing books so expensive, then it's reasonable to ask where the money is going. 'Formatting for e-book'? don't make me laugh, that's trivial in the case of something like a novel which is just a long stream of text with occasional chapter headers. The fact is that publisher want to obscure what a small proportion of the cover price usually goes to the author, because with the advent of E-Books it's a valid question whether authors need publishers the way way they used to any more. Edit: this isn't the whole story of course - naturally, a book does have value to the reader (though it's not always obvious until after you've read it!). Also, having been screwed by a publisher in the past I'm a little cynical about the breed :)
    - moe 17y ago
      I agree with your point that the money belongs to the authors, not to a middleman. You have to take into account however that production/handling costs don't play a role in ebook pricing. Publishers make ebooks expensive for a single reason: to slow ebook adoption as much as they can. They have long realized that once the cat is out the bag their business model inevitably ends (cf. the music industry). And since they can't do anything to prevent it, they at least do their best to slow it...
  - Confusion 17y ago
    Of course; I mixed two arguments and a bit of annoyance :) The arguments are: 1) How much value I am getting depends on how much money I am saving (given equal price, I prefer a real book) 2) They could easily make E-books cheaper and still make money. Somehow I doubt they have hit the sweet spot currently: it's new and they can make money of of it. And I'm annoyed at the fact that I would really like a good E-book reader, but it's just not worth it yet.

ashleyw 17y ago

It's easy to price too high though. Would you rather sell 10 at £4.99, or 100 at 99p? Though of course I'm not saying you should price at 99p just because everyone else does, just remember that generally, the higher price your app, the less people will buy it. Find the optimal price point for your app, to make the most profit. eBooks do kind of have an upper hand though — people have been buying paper books for years, at least it has a proven base price for the market (plus a very low piracy rate). While on the other hand, as you said, the majority of people still don't put a value on software…

Retric 17y ago
I think the publisher needs to compare their cost, risk, and proffit in the old system vs the new system. It's not just the average price that droped but also the risk of printing copy's that they don't sell. A reduction in risk often results in a cost reduction. However, hardbacks have a significant price primium because softcopy's are still their for the price consious. A policy of charging 15$ for everything less than a year (or 6 months) old and 8$ for everthing older than that would provide the same benifit.

Confusion 17y ago

I sure hope people aren't willing to pay $30 for a Kindle version of a book that sells for $35. They don't don't need storage space or stocks, they don't have to print it or take a loss on shipping. All those advantages and that is supposed to save only $5? We're being ripped off here. I wouldn't consider that a proper prize if they gave me the Kindle for free. Cut it to $10 and I'll start considering whether it's worth buying the Kindle.

mtoledo 17y ago
You shouldn't be making your decision on how much money they are saving, but on how much value you are getting.
- anigbrowl 17y ago
  Oh yes you should. They (publishers) set the price of things, so if they're not having to pay for any of the things that they always said makes printing books so expensive, then it's reasonable to ask where the money is going. 'Formatting for e-book'? don't make me laugh, that's trivial in the case of something like a novel which is just a long stream of text with occasional chapter headers. The fact is that publisher want to obscure what a small proportion of the cover price usually goes to the author, because with the advent of E-Books it's a valid question whether authors need publishers the way way they used to any more. Edit: this isn't the whole story of course - naturally, a book does have value to the reader (though it's not always obvious until after you've read it!). Also, having been screwed by a publisher in the past I'm a little cynical about the breed :)
  - moe 17y ago
    I agree with your point that the money belongs to the authors, not to a middleman. You have to take into account however that production/handling costs don't play a role in ebook pricing. Publishers make ebooks expensive for a single reason: to slow ebook adoption as much as they can. They have long realized that once the cat is out the bag their business model inevitably ends (cf. the music industry). And since they can't do anything to prevent it, they at least do their best to slow it...
- Confusion 17y ago
  Of course; I mixed two arguments and a bit of annoyance :) The arguments are: 1) How much value I am getting depends on how much money I am saving (given equal price, I prefer a real book) 2) They could easily make E-books cheaper and still make money. Somehow I doubt they have hit the sweet spot currently: it's new and they can make money of of it. And I'm annoyed at the fact that I would really like a good E-book reader, but it's just not worth it yet.