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More than three-quarters of people working in the book trade believe e-books should be priced at current street prices or less, according to early results of a FutureBook survey into digital thinking. The majority of respondents indicated that publishers are best placed to set this price, even though they don't believe the agency model has a long-term future.
The survey, which was launched last week ahead of the http://futurebook.net/content/futurebook-2010-conference-30th-november-c... target="_blank" title="FutureBook">http://futurebook.net/content/futurebook-2010-conference-30th-november-c... Digital Conference 2010 and has already had more than 500 responses, showed that 76% of respondents believed that e-books should be priced at about the same level as the discounted price of the current print edition, or at a significant discount to this 'street price'. Just 20% said e-books should be the same price as print editions, or more expensive.
The survey also revealed that 60% of respondents believed that the publisher was best placed to set the price of e-books, with 43% supportive of the agency model, even though more than 75% believed that it would not last beyond five years.
One respondent described agency as "not a good plan long-term", but conceded that it was necessary because of "Amazon being too aggressive in the short term". Another argued that publishers on agency terms were getting the pricing wrong: "I think the publishers right now have the price with their agency model too high".
When asked how long agency agreements would remain in place, one third of respondents said up to five years, with only 24% indicating it would last beyond five years. One said it would last "until law enforcement remembers that price fixing is illegal".
The majority of respondents said they believed digital book sales would overtake print after 2015, but when asked whether print books would ever cease to exist, 73% replied "absolutely not".
The full survey results will not be revealed until the FUTUReBOOK Digital Conference 2010, being held on 30th November 2010. http://surveymonkey.com/s/digitalresearch" target="_blank" title="http://surveymonkey.com/s/digitalresearch ">To take part in the survey follow this link, https://www.eventsforce.net/bookseller/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=310... target="_blank" title="to">https://www.eventsforce.net/bookseller/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=310... book into the conference, click here.