Print books are on the rise again in the US

>- I feel that in many cases, ebook prices are just ripping me off.

I think this is really informative for people who price things, not just for the ebook subject. e-book prices are usually lower than print-book prices. But people feel ripped off, because they know it took the publisher zero marginal effort to make their copy.

I mean, I've been on the other side of this, too... I was really surprised when my royalty check came, because if someone buys the e-book alone, I get a massively higher royalty than if someone buys the print book. - so if you are the sort who thinks the author should get paid more and the publisher should get paid less, then e-books are for you.

but... really, the interesting thing is just how intuitive the 'labor theory of value' is- we expect the price we pay for a thing to have something to do with the effort and capital that went into making it, and we feel ripped off when it doesn't.

I'm pretty much an exclusive e-book reader anymore. They're almost always cheaper unless buying used (not something I tend to do) though the difference is very marginal, my reader is waterproof, it supports the only format I care about (ePub), and I backup all of my books on my computer anyway which removes DRM and renders moot fears of losing my books. Most important to me: I hate carrying books around.

Even so, I wish I could pay $3 extra and just get a physical and digital copy. The only two things I really miss from physical books are 1) ease of lending to others and 2) casual perusal of the collection that call to mind the experience of reading it.

"I love reading in the bath, risky with an electronic device."

Large ziploc bag. Problem solved.

Not to mention that the cheapest Fire tablet is down to about $50, which isn't all that much more than a single hardback book (bath water doesn't do those any good, either, especially with the crap "binding" that publishers use on "hardback" books nowadays).

To add to these:

- Even in a walled garden like Kindle, arbitrary fragmentation of the platform. Books that my Kindle device is technically capable of displaying are locked to iOS/Android Kindle app only, etc. Publishers meddling in spaces they don't understand.

- Stagnation of the eInk device market. Since the Kindle DX 5 years ago, I can "upgrade" to a much smaller device to get a backlight or snappier refresh, but my only choice for a similar or larger device lacks both, costs $800, and because it's from Sony can't do Kindle books and may already be a dead platform.

- Difficult if not impossible to lend books. This isn't just about saving money; the chances of a friend reading a book based solely upon a recommendation are much lower than the chances of them reading a book that you place in their hands, simply because of the lower initiative barrier.

That said I prefer ebooks for the majority (by volume) of my reading, more so for fiction than non-fiction. Or, factoring that a bit, I prefer ebooks for light or recreational reading and physical books for more focused or technical reading. This may be related to the limitations of eInk devices, though, since larger displays, faster refresh/annotation, and meta-reading features are more important for technical reading than for linear fiction.

> I feel that in many cases, ebook prices are just ripping me off.

The material costs of a physical book are probably well under $0.50, and the manufacturing is done by automated machines so that should add very little to the marginal cost. Shipping and storage could very well be the biggest contribution to the marginal cost of a physical book.

The costs for a book other than manufacturing, shipping, and storing should be about the same for ebooks and physical books.

Thus as long as an ebook is maybe $1 or so less than the print edition it seems I'm getting a fair deal (or rather I'm getting as fair a deal as I'd get with the print edition...). Most Kindle books that I've been interested in were priced under the physical editions by at least that much.

Good point.

Ebook readers have not evolved much as they should in usability. Not sure if that is due to their nature as lock-in device, or if there is some other reason.

I am still waiting for a open e-ink ebook reader that has a good interface for managing a ebook collection.

Though I have a feeling that a lot of the books people purchase and display on their shelves are never opened after they are initially read. I get the desire to actually own a copy of a book, and quite often I'll notice that the Kindle copy on Amazon is close to being the same price as the physical book-why not indulge a bit? If I'm pretty sure I'll never read it again, or if I feel the least bit worried that I won't enjoy the book, going for the cheaper Kindle option is my first choice (and I don't have tons of money to throw around at books).

I've always thought they should be cheaper. Sure we're paying for the convenience but the cost involved in getting an ebook into the reader's hands is SO much lower than getting a physical copy there.

> E-book pricing has become a lot less attractive than it once was.

On top of that you can only get some ebooks from one reseller if you use that vendors reader device because that reseller doesn't support their app on newer versions of Windows any more.

Seriously Barnes and Noble, lots of Nooks are going to be replaced with iPads and Windows tablets. Trying to create a closed ecosystem for the nook by making it hard for me to get my purchased Nook Books on other devices isn't going to change that.

I have like 400 books on an Amazon wish list. Seems like every time I check it one of them is on sale for $2.

We tend to compare ebook pricing to physical book pricing based on perceived value. But the cost to print and deliver the book should not have an impact on the value you will get from reading it. Trying to "get my money worth" shouldn't impact your decision. Buy the book in the format you want to enjoy it. The cost to the publisher and distributor are irrelevant.

There are advantages other than physical size of an ebook: - Lower effort to complete the buy -> starting reading process - My wife and I share an Amazon account, and therefore we can read an ebook simultaneously

If reading a book in hardcover or paperback form is something you enjoy, they buy it in that format. If you are happy with an ebook, great -- buy an ebook.

If a physical book and an ebook are the same price, then make your decision based onhly on which format you want to read in.

I think the main, possibly only reason that movie theaters exist is because they get the movie before DVD/Blu Ray/Steams and keep them for a long time. If we could choose to buy them however we wanted to right away I think less people would brave the cinema and risk having the movie ruined by idiots while they get gouged on food.

"But traditional books are still easier to read,"

Older people (or anyone with failing vision) would disagree with that statement. Strongly.

I've always prefered reference books in paper form; however, novels work very well in kindle. Although there is something about paper books that I miss, I still prefer ebooks. I don't really like moving around from side to side trying to hold the book in the right position when switching pages.

This is true in a traditional conception of ownership, but you own an ebook better in other ways.

I.e., I've moved a lot in the last few years to the point where I have given away, or just recycled, most of the paper books I've owned. I still have all the ebook a I've ever purchased.

I lost my kindle in a train station last month. I could still access the books I was reading on my phone the same day, and when I get a new kindle all the books will be there with little effort (including notes).

While Stallman's old essay was amazingly prescient and showed an understanding of how ecosystems around media distribution that few had at the time, the part he didn't understand was how consumers would differently weigh the benefits and definitions of ownership.

I've always thought if the DRM can be easily removed, then it's the same as not having DRM at all.

Every purchase I've made from Amazon has the DRM stripped and the files placed in a personal backup. On occasion, I'll send an ebook I purchased to a friend if they expressed an interest. It feels like ownership to me.

Even though in legal terms I have the right of resale of all my physical books, in practical terms there's almost no reason to bother. Outside of a few collectibles, it's not worth much. Therefore, lack of resale on the ebooks doesn't feel much more punishing than the practical lack of resale of the physical books.

Whenever I hear again of that Stallman essay I run this thought experiment - what if e-books came first? Would Stallman have then written an essay about the inherent problems of paper books when compared to e-books? (They are more difficult to transport, they can be lost, stolen or burned, they can't be encrypted or transmitted instantaneously across the planet, negative environmental impact, etc.)

Calibre can remove a lot of DRM from ebooks.

You would save lots of time figuring out the workflow for using DeDRM. It's not difficult at all. You're wasting time and ending up with poor (in visual quality and lack of flowed text) digital copies of your books. The only books that are worth scanning (and possibly proofreading to make them text rather than image-based books) are books that aren't available as ebooks or have some obscure DRM that's not removable by standard software.

The long-term downward trend is typical for almost any new product when you look at only the US market. It corresponds to market saturation, and "everyone in the US" becoming aware of the particular search term.

I wonder about the spikes. The year-end ones are probably for Christmas presents, but what are the summer ones - summer holidays maybe? (people might want to bring something lightweight for reading..)

Yes.

Couple that with the fact that much of the "data" in this area comes from books with ISBNs (which almost no U.S. indie books have, due to the bizarre pricing scheme that Bowker has foisted on us) and things really don't look very good for the trad publishers.