The High Cost of Ebooks

[tinkerdan]

This would probably hold true if you could get these authors in self published form.

But that's the problem. They are "undercutting" themselves. They're not bumping people to the paperback; they're chasing them away to self/small press authors/publishers. In the case of Hart's book, the hardcover and ebook came out together. The paperback isn't out, yet. And the ebook is priced at 50% of the hardcover price. Once again, it will only be marginally cheaper than the paperback (her last novel was $1 cheaper for the ebook).

There are still authors who traditionally publish whose work I want to read.
When I do I either buy the paperback or
the hardbound if there is a sell off from those.
Sometimes they go on sale at amazon and I used to get them from the local Barnes and Nobel.

When they start offering only e-books then they might have to alter the pricing.

 

[Parson]

I suspect that everyone is overthinking the situation. Here's the practical advice: "Follow the money." Printing a best selling book is a cash cow. Now demand is tied to price to a degree but there is some demand at even some unreasonable prices. So first charge unreasonable prices for the books, especially the ebook their advantage is in the traditional printing end. Later when the sales are nominal at best, then charge less and perhaps find a new audience. At this point any sale, especially an electronic sale, is close to pure profit the majority of the expense (in a best seller) having been paid by the earlier versions.

 

[pambaddeley]

I posted this link in the 'Decline of books' thread but think it might be of interest here as there are various graphs with the price points that ebooks are sold at, breaking it down into trad and indie - Print vs Digital, Traditional vs Non-Traditional, Bookstore vs Online: 2016 Trade Publishing by the numbers – Author Earnings

 

[Brian G Turner]

there are various graphs with the price points that ebooks are sold at

What's really interesting is that it demonstrates that most indie books are sold either at a steep discount, else a very reduced price by comparison to traditional publishing. Which is something I'm seeing myself.

In other words - indie authors are effectively giving their books away to try and earn any form of income.

Additionally, I'm confused - I thought AuthorEarnings.com simply guessed sales volume from book positions, and had no actual sales data. If that still holds true, how can they spend so much time presenting data charts based only on guesswork?

 

[pambaddeley]

I thought they scraped data from Amazon or alternatively they use the data someone else has scraped off it?