E-book pricing has become a lot less attractive than it once was. Aside from the convenience of an e-book being easier to travel with and not taking up much space, there's little incentive if they are the same price.
> E-book pricing has become a lot less attractive than it once was.
On top of that you can only get some ebooks from one reseller if you use that vendors reader device because that reseller doesn't support their app on newer versions of Windows any more.
Seriously Barnes and Noble, lots of Nooks are going to be replaced with iPads and Windows tablets. Trying to create a closed ecosystem for the nook by making it hard for me to get my purchased Nook Books on other devices isn't going to change that.
B&N discontinued their desktop apps before the release of Windows 10. If you didn't have it installed in Windows 8 or earlier and upgraded to Windows 10, you can't install it, it won't even download from the Windows Store.
It's a little difficult to install it on Windows 8 and upgrade to Windows 10 when your device came with Windows 10 because you just bought it.
The nook books would work just fine, it's getting them that is the problem. When you purchase the books, there is no download option; to read them, they show up on the nook.
We tend to compare ebook pricing to physical book pricing based on perceived value. But the cost to print and deliver the book should not have an impact on the value you will get from reading it. Trying to "get my money worth" shouldn't impact your decision. Buy the book in the format you want to enjoy it. The cost to the publisher and distributor are irrelevant.
There are advantages other than physical size of an ebook:
- Lower effort to complete the buy -> starting reading process
- My wife and I share an Amazon account, and therefore we can read an ebook simultaneously
If reading a book in hardcover or paperback form is something you enjoy, they buy it in that format. If you are happy with an ebook, great -- buy an ebook.
If a physical book and an ebook are the same price, then make your decision based onhly on which format you want to read in.
> Trying to "get my money worth" shouldn't impact your decision
Why not?
By purchasing the e-book version a customer is surrendering potential future revenue ( resale of physical book or trade-in against another ), but is not being offered much or any compensation for this loss.
If the Kindle edition is £66.50 and the hardback is £70.00 [0] I'll laugh at the publisher's e-avarice and buy the physical copy; I'll likely make about £45 back when I resell it. So really the price of the e-book edition should be about £25.
> If a physical book and an ebook are the same price, then make your decision based onhly on which format you want to read in.
Why shouldn't consumers benefit from a change in technology making production easier? Why do you propose that all the benefits should remain with the creator?
It's not unreasonable for a society to expect that people who benefit from its progress share that benefit with the other members.
Expecting ebooks to be cheaper because of reduced production costs is precisely that expectation -- that publishers which benefit from society contribute to society.
Where am I proposing that "all the benefits should remain with the creator"? I simply choose the format that I want to read. The cost to produce this format compared to other formats simply does not impact my decision.
I enjoy reading an ebook on my eink screen. It would be foolish of me to choose a paperback copy simply because the publisher and distributor made less of a profit on it.
I've always thought they should be cheaper. Sure we're paying for the convenience but the cost involved in getting an ebook into the reader's hands is SO much lower than getting a physical copy there.
But publishers don't really like ebooks because they don't control the digital supply chain - which is owned by Amazon, and to a lesser extent Apple and a few also-rans do.
Paper pub - B&N, small indies, and the like - has a symbiotic and deferential relationship with the publishers. Amazon is a gorilla the size of New Jersey and would happily eat them all for lunch.
So publishing execs are notorious for overpricing ebooks. They don't really care if the ebook market shrivels as long as it doesn't die completely or take paper with it.
Result: ebooks are vastly overpriced, and fewer people are buying.
Meanwhile the self-pub gold rush of a few years ago has ended. There's not nearly as much 99c "product" being shovelled onto Amazon, and the only writers who are making it are career writers who understand PR and reader retention. The no-talent wannabes saw their sales peak then crash, and they've gone elsewhere.
That gives trad pub a little more leverage over content than it had when the gold rush was its peak, and for a while it looked as if it was going to roll over trad pub altogether.
I think it's a temporary equilibrium. It's only working for trad pub because it has such good historical PR, which means too many naive writers still believe being published is a path to cultural glory. As the current generation of naifs dies out the next generation is going to be more realistic about publishing, and they'll realise trad pub has less to offer.
There will still be the occasional million-seller, but the backlist and mid-list writers will all go direct to digital and manage their own paper print runs if they need to - and they'll earn more doing it, even though prices will be lower.
I refuse to buy an ebook if the price is more than the cheapest new, paperback price. I'll either buy the paperback or just not buy it. Usually the latter.
On top of that you can only get some ebooks from one reseller if you use that vendors reader device because that reseller doesn't support their app on newer versions of Windows any more.
Seriously Barnes and Noble, lots of Nooks are going to be replaced with iPads and Windows tablets. Trying to create a closed ecosystem for the nook by making it hard for me to get my purchased Nook Books on other devices isn't going to change that.