[bsder]

> Why would I pay $1000 for one when I can get so many others for $5?

Because market data suggests that most people won't switch. They will buy book from "the new, hip writer X" or they won't buy at all.

Someone who intends to buy something by Malcolm Gladwell is unlikely to buy something from somebody else just because it's a little cheaper.

Amazon wants to maximize sales volume whereas the distributors and authors want to maximize profit. The two are often correlated, but not always.

[mseebach]

Anecdote, not data and all, but for me at least, if I hear about a book that might be interesting, I look it up and if it's below some cutoff price point (I'm not sure exactly what it is, probably around $10-$15), I just click buy and be done with it. I don't put it on a wish list or bookmark it, just get it. As a consequence, the (metaphorical, they're on my kindle) pile of books that I own but probably won't ever get around to read is bigger than ever, and my total spending on books is probably a lot higher than it would be if I carefully considered each more expensive purchase.

[fpgeek]

> Because market data suggests that most people won't switch. They will buy book from "the new, hip writer X" or they won't buy at all.

Which is why publishers don't care whether or not stores like Amazon discount their physical books. </sarcasm>

[kamakazizuru]

Yes - but a person looking to buy the Malcolm Gladwell book - willing to buy it at 10$ - but who can only buy it at 15$ or more - will probably end up then either borrowing it from a friend or in the worst case downloading it as a PDF illegally. Both of which are a lost sale for the publisher and author.

[simias]

Do you have any numbers to back that up though?

I mean, I know that with e-readers book piracy is now potentially practical but is it really a concern for publisher? I'm really curious to know how mainstream it is.

I wouldn't be surprised if the main cause of piracy for ebooks was not the price but rather that the book is not available on a particular platform or only in paperback. Besides the demographics for book readers owning an e-reader is probably older and more wealthy than the average movie pirate.

The only numbers we have are those given by amazon, but we don't know exactly which books they used to make their statistics. We also don't know what the people who didn't buy the 15$ ebooks ended up doing, maybe they didn't buy anything at all, maybe they just bought the paperback...

[kamakazizuru]

A kindle costs <50$ - load it up with free PDFs downloaded via Torrents or other means and the notion : "book readers owning an e-reader is probably older and more wealthy than the average movie pirate" falls flat.

I dont have numbers to back it up - but plenty of anecdotal evidence and just common sense too. I myself have borrowed that malcolm gladwell book or the other - because the cheapest I could buy it was 20$ - and while I was interested in reading it - not enough to spend that much. Had it been 10$ - it would be worth it for me to just buy it rather than ask around friends if someone had a copy I could borrow. (You can also "borrow" books from friends on Kindle)

[WalterBright]

Bestsellers are the books that normally wind up in the thrift store for a buck. Ironically, it's the obscure books that wind up being pricey.

[chatmasta]

Yes, but someone who is looking for a non-fiction book, with no author preference, is more likely to buy a $5 Michael Lewis book than a $15 Malcom Gladwell book.