[zzalpha]

Thats more of a perception problem than an actual fact. It turns out that hosting/supporting ebooks does have incremental costs and people dramatically over estimate how much the price of a hardback is the physical copy.

The publishing industry can blame themselves for that.

Back before ebooks, a typical paperback would run between 8-12 dollars whereas a hardcover would easily be 20 dollars or more.

This gave the perception that printing and binding is a significant portion of book price.

Of course, we all know that's crap. In practice, they were simply charging a premium markup for a product that was perceived as being superior.

But now who can blame the consumer for having the same basic expectation, but in the opposite direction, when ebooks are considered?

[tptacek]

I think most adults understood that what you were paying for in a hardcover new edition was early access.

[zzalpha]

I have absolutely no reason to believe your claim. What's your evidence?

In fact, it doesn't make sense: it's not like hard covers get cheaper over time.

[kasey_junk]

Prior to the advent of the 40% discount bookstores (Borders/Barnes & Noble) they always actually get cheaper over time.

Those stores used economies of scale to make the 40% discount (basically selling for cost) on blockbusters to drive business into the store, with the hope that people would also pick up higher margin items (toys, coffee, etc).

But the more traditional bookstore model was to stock the blockbuster hardcovers at full price, then move them onto discount shelves as time from release went down, until they had to return them to the publisher right before the soft cover release date neared and the books became a liability (as the people that were willing to pay the premium for early access had already been exhausted).

There are still places that have heavily discounted hard covers. The entire business is called 'remainders' and the publishers sell giant warehouses full of hard cover books for pennies that they deem unsellable as they are too far from release date. Soft backs don't go through this process as they are even less valuable, the publishers pulp those, sometimes at a loss.

[edit] another more obvious way to think about this is, why do hardcovers and soft backs come out at different times? If it was just about the 'premium' product vs the lower end one, they'd be released at the same time. But they aren't. They are release about a year different.

[tptacek]

The fact that paperbacks didn't come out until months after the hardcover came out? I mean, this is what my parents told me the deal with hardcover books was in the 1980s, but it's not like it's hard to figure it out.

[zzalpha]

Fair enough, obviously early access is part of the price differential during the initial release.

But are you claiming form factor is not part of the price at all? If so, how do you explain it for books that have both versions actively in print?

[statictype]

If its a book by an author I really like or am looking forward to, I may buy the hardcover edition even if the paper back is available.

Or especially if I'm going to gift it to someone who really wants it.