A survey of 840 international industry representatives conducted at this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, in cooperation with buchreport and Publishers Weekly, confirms the lack of consensus in the publishing industry as far as ebook pricing is concerned. While most publishers suggested that ebooks should be cheaper than the same (or equivalent) print version, the range of the discount suggested by publishers varies enormously.
The responses reflect, I believe, the wide range of publishing experience, types of book and level of sophistication in pricing calculations (including gut feel favoured by many publishers). The responses raise a number of questions about ebook pricing:
Do publishers start from a position where they strip out print and distribution costs and thereafter price to achieve the same margins as print – or do they see this as an opportunity to squeeze higher margins?
Do they give a little more discount to reflect the absence of returns – ie to take account of books which otherwise would be returned to the publisher from booksellers in exchange for a refund ?
The responses reflect, I believe, the wide range of publishing experience, types of book and level of sophistication in pricing calculations (including gut feel favoured by many publishers). The responses raise a number of questions about ebook pricing:
Do publishers start from a position where they strip out print and distribution costs and thereafter price to achieve the same margins as print – or do they see this as an opportunity to squeeze higher margins?
Do they give a little more discount to reflect the absence of returns – ie to take account of books which otherwise would be returned to the publisher from booksellers in exchange for a refund ?
Do they – following any discount to relect zero print and distribution costs – add back in a percentage to reflect the cost associated with piracy risk?
Are the growing number of conusmers who are used to purchasing music, say, off iTunes, more inclined to favour a flat-rate price – like on Amazon front list titles?
Another consideration – linked to the piracy consideration, but from the consumer /reader side – is whether a discount should be factored in to allow for limited usage of an ebook. If a ebook is made difficult to share then can it be considered by the consumer as a less useful product? ....on the other hand if you believe that the sharing of print books leads to increased sales of books, then the restricted sharing opportunities of ebooks should lead to a more shallow discount to maintain margin.
The point I’m illustrating here is that ebook pricing is not so scientific (yet)! Other known unknowns – I believe – could be in the variable cost of sale of using different channels and formats ; how far publishers will consider use of advertising revenue – e.g. like Spotify for music – in exchange for ‘free’ to end-user content; subscription rates buying consumers access to whole /sections of publishers’ catalogues ; whether mobile access to ebook content should in fact be at a premium, rather than discount, to the print.
Here are the results of the survey:
The price for an e-book should be:
More than the printed book: 4% of respondents
Same as the printed book 15% of respondents
10 per cent cheaper than the printed book 11% of respondents
20 per cent cheaper 17% of respondents
30 per cent cheaper 14% of respondents
More than 30 per cent cheaper 16% of respondents
A standard price as with Amazon ($9.99) 15% of respondents
Other price model 6% of respondents
2 comments:
It would be also very important to highlight the environmental cost of e-books which contain hazardous components and release much more GHG than hundreds of printed books.
Your article is incredibly useful.Everyday your diary inspire Pine Tree State heaps deal and helped to develop one thing new like I actually have developed a brand new app spotify premium apk ios this is often great and pleasant.Thanks for the awe-inspiring posts , please keep updated frequently.
Post a Comment