Amazon vs. Apple: What Should E-Book Prices Be? | Hacker News Reader

Amazon vs. Apple: What Should E-Book Prices Be?

business.theatlantic.com

This is the best analysis I've seen yet.

There's a lot of open questions (about the price elasticity of e-books, for example), which will undoubtedly get sorted out over time--but it's important first to lay out how the interests of the different players don't always align, and the Apple vs Amazon distinction is a good point to keep in mind.

I was interested in the assertion that most books aren't fashion items, so it doesn't make sense for the price to go down over time. I'd have thought that this effect would still be there, even if it's less pronounced than on blockbusters - publicity will be timed to coincide with the launch, and I'd imagine most people waiting for the next instalment will want it sooner rather than later.

I really don't care how much it costs THEM. I care how much it costs ME.

I've been reading books from the Gutenburg Project on my PDA for a few years. Someone recently recommended a book to me that was released about 10 years ago. I go to buy it in electronic format and it's $24.99. I pass. I end up borrowing it from someone I know instead.

For me, I must provide the storage medium, electricity, and data connection. On top of that I must pay 10.00 - 30.00 for a small file that possibly contains some kind of DRM that would leave me unable to transfer the file to another device. What did I buy?

However, what if I was able to buy 50 ebooks for $25. Well, I would probably go for something like that. Right now, it's simply not worth the time, energy and money to buy what's on the market.

I'd go even further. Why not sell a subscription pass? For $20 a month, you get unlimited access to all the books in Amazon's catalog. Each rental would expire after two weeks, and you'd be free to take that book out again and again.

I'd deal with the necessary DRM if this idea was implemented.

Most local library systems nowadays let you do something kinda like this -- except for free.

You should care how much it costs them. If they can't recoup their costs in making books then they will stop making books.

Books are already a very slim margin business as it is, author superstars, let alone folks who can make a living from writing alone, are far, far rarer than in other similar industries such as music, tv, and film.

The comments section finally broke through my dense thinking by explaining why you only look to marginal cost.

http://business.theatlantic.com/2010/02/amazon_vs_publishers...

$10 seems too high when all the out of copyright stuff is available for about $1.

You know, Macmillan books still aren't available to buy from Amazon. Through Amazon, via third parties, but not actually from Amazon.

Seems to me that given the inevitability of piracy in this new format, publishers will likely not see any substantial net gains from the higher prices, which may in fact simply offset the cost of piracy on the platform.

$5-7

Let's make it an even 0.

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