tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338977976954280982.post9079073800416330826..comments2023-06-10T04:31:40.879-04:00Comments on Joe Wikert's Kindleville Blog: All Kindle, All the Time: How do you spell "shortsighted?"Joe Wikerthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02898067591293359566noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338977976954280982.post-43954868011798258912009-07-15T17:56:10.863-04:002009-07-15T17:56:10.863-04:00Dominique Raccah took a very brave and unpopular s...Dominique Raccah took a very brave and unpopular stand to launch a very necessary and important conversation for the publishing industry. It is interesting that none of the "big guys" seem willing to take a stand, and a shame that the WSJ and NYT zeroed in on the "cannibalization" issue instead of the pricing issue. The real story here is what Amazon has done to establish customer expectations and cement their dominant market share position, not to mention how publishers have just played along. Until now. http://bit.ly/mC8JxPaulMikoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00081838345007964895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338977976954280982.post-73427752974782752062009-07-14T08:18:34.579-04:002009-07-14T08:18:34.579-04:00I saw a breakdown last week (sorry, didn't sav...I saw a breakdown last week (sorry, didn't save the link) that showed an 8 times higher profit on ebooks than hardback, simply because (for now) Amazon is paying publishers the same amount as if the book were a hardback. It isn't that hardbacks make more margin (although they do, versus paperbacks), as that I think publishers are afraid that if the market truly "settles" at 9.99, they'll eventually be forced to accept a lower price from Amazon and their ebook profit will be back down to "normal" (actually, down to closer to paperback prices). <br /><br />What's actually happening, is that ebook purchasers are often the ones that waited until paperbacks or used copies became available; they are now actually paying more (in many cases) for the "hardback ebook" than they would have before, simply because they don't wait for the $10 to $15 paperback (usually in an awful "trade" paperback size). Plus all the readers they never had due to issues with font sizes (few books get large print editions and those are then too big to handle for the target audience).<br /><br />As for the Hambric book - let them wait 6 months. At that point, I doubt anyone will be willing to pay more than the "standard" $6.39 of paperback prices (meaning they lose even more per sale, plus many will just get a used or library copy for free).<br /><br />Ebooks are a license to print money - too bad that some publishers don't see the potential.<br /><br /><br />Karen<br /><a href="http://booksontheknob.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow">Books On The Knob</a>Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10065579219096568419noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338977976954280982.post-67101700842668264712009-07-13T16:08:10.351-04:002009-07-13T16:08:10.351-04:00An eBook will cannibalize sales...I'm amazed b...An eBook will cannibalize sales...I'm amazed by the blazing idiocy of this remark. The only way this statement makes sense is if he believes Kindle owners won't wait and will buy the DTB but is this realistic? Not likely.<br /><br />First, I can wait, after all I have over 100 books (more than half in the public domain) so I'm not hurting for something to read. Research shows that we Kindle owners buy a lot of books! Second, I bought a Kindle to avoid purchasing DTB so this just ticks me off. I'm more likely to borrow it from the library and then write a letter to the author letting him/her know the publisher lost a sale by not releasing an eBook in a timely fashion. Third, while I'm not so inclined, I know full well that books wind up online quite quickly at warez sites. The music and movie industry discovered that digital consumers want their content now, not next month. Talk about cannibalizing sales. Looks like book publishers smoke the same weed...and they'll learn the same lessons the same hard way. Sad.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3338977976954280982.post-7418115304477978772009-07-13T15:49:26.034-04:002009-07-13T15:49:26.034-04:00You nailed it when you said, "Are the profit ...You nailed it when you said, "Are the profit margins that much higher for hardbacks?" The answer is yes. That's what publishers are reluctant to give up. They will dither about how it really costs "almost as much" to create an ebook as a print book, but what they really mean is, they make a LOT more money on a hardcover that sells at or near its retail price than they do on any other format, trade paper included.<br /><br />But refusing to issue reasonably priced ebooks (no more than $10) concurrently with hardcover is short-sighted because most ebook readers don't buy hardbacks anyway. They want digital books, not print.karen wester newtonhttp://karen-wester-newton.comnoreply@blogger.com