Some Publishers to Delay eBook Releases
PrintAmazon's Kindle is the hottest selling item across the company's entire site, and Barnes & Noble can't make enough Nook readers to satisfy demand. It would appear that e-book readers are poised to become as popular as netbooks, and that's good news all around, right? You would think so, but there are a handful of publishers playing the part of Scrooge this holiday season.
Simon & Schuster, for example, has decided to delay by four months the electronic book editions of some 35 leading titles coming out in 2010. Why? Because the publisher's not happy with the low $9.99 pricing of e-book best sellers. And they're not alone. Lagardere SCA's Hachette Book Group is taking a similar stance, the Wall Street Journal reports.
"The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback," said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. "We believe some people will be disappointed. But with new readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible."
That's a perplexing statement, considering it probably won't be long before the install base balloons anyway. Albert Greco, a professor at the Fordham University Graduate School of Business who studies the book industry, predicts that the e-book retail sales could climb as highs as $201 million next year, up from $150 million this year.
"In the Internet age you don't enjoy the same degree of control," said Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, LLC, an online media measurement company in Beverly Hills, California. "You can't create artificial scarcity by withholding content in one form and making it available in another."
Or can they?
Image Credit: tippinthescales.files.wordpress.com
More like this
aviaggio
December 09, 2009 at 8:49am
This is the same problem the gaming industry faces right now, and is why games on Steam cost exactly the same as they do at GameStop or WalMart (and is why I will NEVER buy a current release on Steam).
If you release a digital copy at the same time as the hardcover at 1/2 the price, then all the book retailers are going to revolt. This is why they don't want to do it. If they released the ebook at the same time as the hardcover they'd have to charge the same price, and only a moron would buy it.
But yeah, they are trying to have their cake and eat it to. Unfortunately this kind of short-sightedness is what's killing the music and DVD industry. You'd think these people would learn from the mistakes of others.
Zanthexter
December 09, 2009 at 7:40am
As the others said, it sounds like they just want to increase the profit margin per book by keeping prices "reasonable" while taking advantage of near free distribution costs.
Not only does an eBook need to compete with Internet users perception of what they "should" cost (About a dollar in my view), but they are also competing for the users TIME. For a dollar, I'll pick up something on a whim. For $5 I had better be fairly sure I am going to like it. More than that, and likely I'll go do something else that is interesting, and less expensive.
My understanding is that around $1.25 would roughly match the profit margin per book of a paperback (about 10% of the coer price each for the Author and Publisher), with $.25 left over for the eBook distributor to wring some profit from. Right or wrong, around a dollar is likely where things will settle out.
dullthud
December 09, 2009 at 7:04am
I agree with the previous poster, there is very little cost to electronically publish and distribute, compared to physical media. This is another case of the corporate "let's see how much we can screw 'em for" business model. This is what leads some people to piracy. It happened with music, then movies, think it won't happen with ebooks? Keep the pricing reasonable and less people will pirate, you'll bring in more new customers, and you'll make more money. Inflate the prices artificially and watch the Jolly Roger fly, and your profits burn.
nekollx
December 09, 2009 at 9:41am
when will they get it? Movies? Music? Games? Applications? and now Ebooks.
WE WILL NOT PAY FULL PRICE FOR DIGITAL MEDIA
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Tekzel
December 09, 2009 at 6:52am
That woman is a moron. The right place for an e-book is well less than a paperback since there is NO manufacturing and distribution costs. And, until they get there, I won't be bothering with e-books and their readers.
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