News
Publishers 'insulting' readers over e-book prices
30.06.09 | Catherine Neilan
Publishers are "insulting" readers by expecting them to pay equivalent prices for e-books as for hardback versions, delegates at the inaugural Publishing Laid Bare conference heard last week.
As part of a panel discussion on what publishers could learn from other industries, The Friday Project publisher Scott Pack, author and editor Jonathan Reuvid, and director of manga publisher SelfMadeHero Emma Hayley, discussed the impact of digital versions of books on revenue.
Pack warned that while it was inevitable e-book sales would begin to cannibalise print sales, publishers should price books at a more reasonable level.
"We are kidding ourselves if we think we can charge the same for an e-book as we do for a print copy," he said. "Most ridiculous of all is charging the same as a hardback - we are insulting our audience to do that. If, and they will, e-books start to encroach on print sales, we have to find another way of dealing with that."
Pack cited a recent TFP book, Blood, Sweat & Tea, the digital version of which had been made free under the Creative Commons Licence, at the author’s request. This generated an "enormous" word of mouth response, with "almost exclusively positive" media coverage and "goodwill", which could be channelled for future releases.
"I don’t think you could do this with every book... but perhaps with a writer’s first book, you could issue it as an e-book to get reviews, and build word-of-mouth responses, and then perhaps the second the book could be print," Pack said.
He also suggested "vanilla" e-books could be cheap, while publishers could charge more for "bells and whistles" digital versions. He said there were "myriad" options.
Hayley agreed e-books would begin to eat into publisher’s overall sales, but she warned about lowering the price of books too far. "You still have creative costs, and agents want a bigger royalty for e-books, so it can’t be dirt cheap or it won’t work financially," Hayley said.
Comments on this article
By Martin
This is so true. As a seller of both books and ebooks, I am expected to give away a huge slab of margin to compete in sales of physical product. The ebooks are then coming in at the same prices or higher than the hard copy. It's not an easy sell. The final insult is VAT on digital product (why?) making it virtually impossible to get this off the ground in the EU. Interestingly, Australia is our best market for ebooks, because books are so dear over there. I know a small publisher who has done pricing trials on ebooks. They start to take off at under 50% of hard copy prices.30 Jun 09 10:06
By Matt
With hardback, you're paying for the format, aren't you? So shouldn't the price be linked with the format i.e. along the same lines as say an MP3 price of a CD album? Better still, why not release the e-book version at the same time as the paperback some time after the hardback has been released?30 Jun 09 11:15
By inwaiting
That's Scott Pack, the man who lectured publishers about pricing their books higher so Waterstone's could look better when they discounted... I am bewildered how people who are perfectly capable of using a pocket calculator can call for authors and publishers to offer their work for free, as a sort of marketing excercise. Why? Why should an author give away his/her work? What if there's no other book in him? Why should editors, production managers (yes you need those even for an e-book) and everyone else that makes a publishing house what it is, work for nothing? What planet do the people who suggest this nonsense live on?30 Jun 09 11:18
By e-publisher
What people seem to forget or not even understand, is that an electronic product can't take advantage of the way we've been publishing print for so long. Part of the benefit of print is that we know what we're doing, we've done it a million and one times, we know what the impact is of increasing the extent or making late changes. With e we're just learning. Development costs for an all singing all dancing product can run pretty high - a publisher can't be expected to sell it for a reduced price or free. Authors, copy editors, proof readers and even sometimes typsetters still have to be paid along with the developer if it's not being produced in-house. This idea that publishers are exploiting the market is ridiculous. We still have to make a profit otherwise what's the point in doing it?30 Jun 09 11:34
By Hugh McManners
At the moment, ebooks are electronic gadgets for which gadget makers are seeking a market. Why should publishers (and authors) subsidise this? In due course, when ereaders are better, cheaper and more widespread, then ebooks drop in price. Market forces will lead to specific ebooks being reduced in price for marketing reasons. But while Kindle, Sony et al are making big bucks selling expensive gadgets, there's no sales reason for offering cheap ebooks to off-set the buy-in cost of the hardware. Unless of course the hardware manufacturers would like to subsidise writing and publishing costs....30 Jun 09 12:54
By Karl
Why does it seem that the ultimate goal is for authors to offer work for free? While most writers don't do it just for the money, they do need to make something from it. Without authors, et al, getting paid for their efforts, a) why should they go to the trouble, and b) what else are they all expected to do for a living? Given the technological society we live in, where there are more people than there are jobs, the economy actually needs people to be able to earn a crust from writing, music, acting, etc. and that means products have to carry a certain price, both to satisfy wage concerns and to generate profits. That said, there is no reason for e-books to cost the same as hardbacks if they really are the cheaper, 'greener' option they're made out to be (and they're not, but that's for another time).30 Jun 09 13:38
By Johnny Hodges
Anyone who knows anything about Tom Reynolds, the author of Blood Sweat and Tea, is aware that he is the person driving the free download of his book, something his publisher seems happy to support - not the other way round30 Jun 09 14:02
By Different Planet
Hugh, Sony have probably sold about 50 000 units in the UK market.. hardly big bucks taking development costs into account. Customer perception partly fuelled by iPod and MP3 dowloads is always going to be that they expect an ebook to the cheaper and they WILL feel insulted if an electronic version costs the same as a paperback or hardback. Publisher playing this wait-and-see game will mean they will miss the boat. This could potentially be a really lucrative market with a bit more creativity. What puts many people off buying books is picking up another duff book that isn't readable past page 2. Using ebooks publishers could offer initial chapters first for a small fee for people to try. That will generate additional revenue in itself.. It's got to be better to have at least some revenue than none at all. The book industry is so far behind electronically.... meaning people are spending their money elsewhere.30 Jun 09 14:33
By literatiwatch
I'm def not saying I agree with Scott Pack (remember all that Waterstone's business...) but maybe we should all sit down and read some of the books we publish - starting with Chris Anderson's book 'Free' - all about the balance of free and paid for content and services. See p.150-161 on books.30 Jun 09 14:45
By Cathy Macleod
Amazon has more or less set the price of a digital novel at $9.99. At Booktaste.com we use this as a marker and price titles above or below. With a free sample, readers seem to buy willingly. Publishers who offer an ebook at the same price as the print edition deserve to be ignored. Those who offer free books are digging their own grave.01 Jul 09 09:11
By Iucounu
There is considerable evidence to suggest that giving ebooks away for free can boost sales of physical books; releasing some part of an author's backlist onto the internet for nothing can often be an excellent promotional tool for their frontlist, and cost hardly anything in lost sales. Most of that evidence comes from the SF market, where you also find that readers are early adopters of the requisite technology - look at what Tor and Baen are doing in the US, for example. If you want to see how the market might shape up, that's where to look. I really don't believe that there will be many takers for ebooks priced much above a fiver, just as I wouldn't dream of paying CD prices for iTunes downloads...01 Jul 09 09:22
By inwaiting
So that's an idea for the publishers of cheap and cheerful mass series then. I see. Sounded for a moment as if someone had suggested that any author of publisher expecting to get paid for their efforts was exploiting poor readers. Of course we are talking about readers who regard a gadget as fairly priced enough at £200+ to buy it, but then baulk at £10 for a book? 'Nuff said.01 Jul 09 13:30
By Iucounu
"Of course we are talking about readers who regard a gadget as fairly priced enough at £200+ to buy it, but then baulk at £10 for a book? 'Nuff said." Dedicated ebook readers are a dead end, now that everyone's phone will be capable of launching the Space Shuttle within a couple of years. I much prefer Stanza on my ipod to Kindle or the Sony Reader.01 Jul 09 15:04
By Different Planet
The platform isn't the issue. It is the price and the customer's perception of price that make its value. Clearly plenty of people find £200 good value for an electronic reader, whereas the same price for an electronic format of a book compared to print isn't regarded as good value. The production and development costs of the electronic reader will be significant... the electronic version of a paperback shouldn't really cost anything extra on top of costs already incurred, so therefore regarded as poor value. Customers are always right....01 Jul 09 15:34
By Chuff
What additional costs do publishers have between an eBook and a paperback? Given that most books are written on a computer anyway. Use a decent desktop publishing package for style and presentation, save as a .pdf. I own a Sony Reader and I AM insulted that anyone expects me to pay the same for an eBook as a paperback. No item raw materials cost, no item production cost/overheads. There's a saving, even if all other costs are the same (advertising, proof reading etc). Any reasonably sized publisher/retailer will find the set up costs of a download portal minimal and mostly one off.08 Sep 09 15:17
By RobC
Chuff: the cost of printing your typical mass-market paperback can be anything from 25p upwards, depending upon print quantity and quality. I doubt simply removing the costs of the physical product would reduce e-book prices that much.08 Sep 09 19:09
