http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/surrey/8516122.stm

Brenna

I understand your concern, and thanks for answering the polling.

I tend to purchase unsecured formats to make sure I can read it on whatever device of my own I wish. I know some devices (like Nook and Kindle) have sharing built in to the device, and there are lending libraries of e-books. I think we’re moving toward what you would like…slowly. It always seems to go slower than we’d like, it seems.

The common thread is that we need a universal format that everything can read and a universal reader that can read every format. Once we have both…at a decent price, we’ll be golden. Believe me, I get it! Grinning…

Brenna

I’m not suggesting that publishers *need* to address my concerns – I recognize that I am probably in a minority of eventual ebook readers, even if many of the current small universe of ebook readers might agree with me. But I also think that no one will really have any idea what the larger book-reading audience will pay for ebooks until something really standard and universal emerges.

brennalyonsden.blogspot.com/

You will find a polling to the left side top of the blog. Vote in it, and give me feedback. It’s one simple question…how much are you willing to pay for a novel-length (NOT category length…something 300 mass market pages long or so and selling for $6 or more in mass market on Amazon and with a mass market list price of $8 or so…specific enough detailing on what the comparison will be?) fiction e-book. I have it set to run for more than a month, and the results will be reported in a post from EPIC. I believe I know what avid e-book readers will say, but let’s see if I’m right.

At the very least, this will be an interesting experiment.

Brenna

‘The lower barrier for financial success in a novel decreases the cost per finding a successful novel as well, in that the publisher’s manuscript readers will spend more time approving books.’

I think you should run this one by the people over at Making Light; it will give them a laugh, sorry, cheer them up…

1. Publishers need to realize that the ebook is a real game changer for what gets published and how much it costs. With ebooks, there are no physical costs involved, ie no need to print physical copies of the book. Since physical printing is expensive to set up and run, this means that the “probability of sufficient success” for an author’s novel doesn’t need to be as high to merit publishing, and risk of monetary loss decreases. Furthermore, there are no “second hand” ebooks, which further increases sales. The lower barrier for financial success in a novel decreases the cost per finding a successful novel as well, in that the publisher’s manuscript readers will spend more time approving books. In a situation where the cost of the book is calculated to make a “fair” profit, these factors would mean that the cost of ebooks would decrease. Even in a situation where the cost of the work is based on making as much profit as reasonable, which is a more realistic example, it would be expected by the consumer the the price of an ebook would be less than that of the physical copy at an equivalent time.

2. With digital media, the moral judgement of the consumer is key. As the music and film industries have discovered, DRM doesn’t work- it might stop the everyday user from disseminating, but is no real barrier for the even partially tech-savy. If ebook readers feel like they are getting the shaft, they are liable to torrent or otherwise freely and illegally obtain the novel/film/music in question. I’m not going to discuss the morality of this- its a simple, empirical fact. So is the concept that once someone’s downloaded one book, they are more likely to download more. Readers want to read these books still, but- notice many of the above comments- they become unwilling to pay. Authors and publishers should consider the long term impact of what is effectively short term price-gouging. As a side note, also consider offering free ebook access if you buy the physical book- its kinda nice to be able to use either a computer or the novel.

3. On the reverse, treating the consumer well results in consumer loyalty. Anecdotally, I’m a member of several online forums, some about books, others about computer programming, etc, and I remember a while back that someone asked if anyone had an upload for a John Ringo novel. Now, with some authors, this would probably have been followed with a post including a link to some semi-dodgy site; in this case, the poster was informed that all of Ringo’s novels were available at webscriptions.net for a reasonable price ($5, in this case). The original poster thanked the person who wrote the reply, saying they hadn’t known.

4. The publishing industry is afraid of creating a “walmart” situation, where Amazon, as the seller, controls the market and thus the price. Because of this, MacMillan argued that Amazon shouldn’t take a hit on books to offer them at a lower price, an argument that resulted in MacMillan books being pulled. Amazon mismanaged PR on this occasion, but there is no such guarantee for the future. What MacMillan, and the authors that can influence it need to understand is that there is no faster way for Amazon to gain control than for it to be the effective champion of the consumer.

Overall, MacMillan in particular and the publishing world in general is showing a sense of greed and lack of understanding and forethought that is truly astonishing.