Shouldn't Ebook Pricing Model Be Different From Print Books?

I must confess that until I began to blog, I had not paid much attention to ebooks. Now that I have been checking out ebook news and availability of ebooks, what I hadn't known is that over the past two or three years most publishers have been offering ebooks and continue to do so. I found that there is, for example, PerfectBound for HarperCollins ebook titles, ContentLink—Random House's ebook store, Amazon ebooks, and many more online ebook stores that carry ebooks from various publishers. Then I looked specifically for computer and technology books and noticed that many technology publishers also offer their print books in ebook version, usually in Adobe or MS Reader format. If you want a quick look at some of the computer ebooks, check out the Computer Technology ebooks at eBookopolis. These ebooks all seem to be straightforward electronic versions of the corresponding print books. Now take a look at the prices for the ebooks. Each ebook seems to be priced nearly the same as its print counterpart. This ebook pricing model is confusing me. Shouldn't the publishers be able to price the ebooks much lower than the print versions, considering that there are no printing costs, shipping costs, and no need to accept returns from booksellers? Or, put it another way, wouldn't it make sense to price the ebooks as low as possible just to encourage buyers to go for the ebooks? Before we think of better formats and designs for ebooks, publishers should rethink the pricing model for the current computer ebooks—to ensure that there are some real incentives for buying the ebooks. One way or another we'll probably see a move towards lower-priced computer ebooks because that's an obvious way to compete in this marketplace.

Tags: books ebooks epublishing pricingmodel trends ebookopolis amazon harpercollins randomhouse adobe msreader

Comments

[Joe Wikert]

Hi Naba. I think the psychological problem most publishers have with this is that they don't want to cheapen their content just because it is presented in a non-print format. The thinking goes like this: If a book's price is $30, that's the price whether it's an e-book, print book, audio book, etc. Do I agree? No, but not for the reason(s) you might think...

As I've noted before, I almost think we'd have to take the e-book price down to a few dollars (<$5) to generate any significant traction in today's model. But that's just it...I don't agree with today's model for the e-book platform. Simple ports of print book to e-book, whether PDF, Microsoft Reader or any other format, just aren't worth that much. Their portability is more than offset by the facts that they're hard to read and the presentation style doesn't lend itself to an e-platform. If the print book is $30 and someone is willing to pay $10 or $20 for the e-book version, they'll probably also pay $30 for it. That's nothing more than a gut feel comment from me, by the way -- I don't have any data to back this up. I just think that someone has to really be desperate to buy an e-book the way we're formatting and selling them today.

Now, if we could (a) come up with a killer device and (b) move to that layered, rich content model where we're truly taking advantage of the electronic platform, I think you *could* charge the same price for both e-book and print book, and sell quite a few copies of the former. Until then, we're stuck with this fairly lame model where publishers are worried about setting a dangerous precedent with an e-book price that's significantly different from the print book price.

[Naba Barkakati]

Hi Joe, It would be nice if we could get to the rich content model with a commensurate device, but what if someone begins to undercut the current pricing by offering even the lame PDF/MS Reader offerings at big discounts - - say a half or a third the cost of current print titles. I suspect that may persuade some people to forego the print books and go for the ebooks. What I am saying is that some enterprising authors could self-publish ebooks and sell them cheap and if they are good enough, a market might develop... kind of like Southwest Airlines entering a market, to borrow an example from the airline industry. That could be another way to jump start the computer ebook market. I guess we'll have to wait and see or do something on own, if we can :-)

[Zam]

Yes, ebooks could become more economical especially when they are simply converted into the digital format from their print versions. But with the enhancement of technology, ebooks could becme much more informative and interactive when compared to their printed versions. This could actually make them much more expensive than the printed ones.

Zam
Ray Digital - Ebook Design, Ebook Development
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