Ask HN: Why do some paperbacks cost less than their ebook versions? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why do some paperbacks cost less than their ebook versions?

6 pointsvijayr7 comments

This doesn't make any sense to me at all. It is very frustrating to see paper backs cost less (sometimes upto 20% or more) than kindle versions. There is so much cost involved in printing, transporting, stocking paperbacks, but ebooks cost next to nothing.

What am I missing?

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High ebooks prices are mostly due to the 'agency pricing' model adopted by publishers specifically for ebooks. In a nutshell, publishers do not want retailers like Amazon to discount ebooks too heavily and ultimately force publishers to accept lower profits.

In the agency model, publishers force retailers to sell ebooks at pre-defined (and usually unjustifiably high) prices. All the large publishing houses are quite uncomfortable with the rise of ebooks because consumers expect ebooks to cost less and increased ebook adoption would mean lower profits for publishers.

This article goes into more detail: http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/why-smashwords-moved-to-ag...

This is pure speculation, but I wonder if production cost is the driving factor. Rather, I think it is a question of what a potential buyer is willing to pay. If a person with a Kindle is looking to read, say, Atlas Shrugged ($19 Kindle, $10 Paperback) I don't think they are going to buy the paperback just to save money. They are probably willing to eat the extra $9 for the immediate gratification. Amazon knows that, so they'll charge more.

Also, its interesting to note (from an unscientific random survey) that they are charging less for the Kindle Edition when it comes to bestsellers (which are probably in hardback). I wonder if this is in an effort to hook potential buyers and then increase margins when Kindle owners buy older titles?

Two factors I can think of:

First, price has less to do with production cost than with the perceived value of the product. The value of the Kindle version is increased by the utility of the Kindle itself.

Second, the production cost has to be covered (of course) so the cost per unit depends on how many units you sell. In other words, a popular paperback may well have a much lower production cost per unit than the ebook will ever have.

What transporting? What Stocking? Amazon is capable of print on demand. Second the primary cost of books is not the physical it is the human effort(writer, editor, layout). Perhaps people who do E-book layout are more costly than their paper counter parts making those books more expensive.

Yes, Amazon is capable of PoD. But most books are not printed by Amazon, they come from big name publishers. And big bookstores even charge a "stock" fee. All these quickly drive up the price of a paperbacks (or hardcovers). None of these apply for ebooks though.

I don't know how much "book layouts" cost, but I doubt they are such a big factor to drive up the ebooks cost.

Authors of books on niche topics prefer to sell paperbacks just so that they can reduce piracy. E-books are often easier to pirate, and niche-topic authors don't fancy losing huge chunks of their sales to pirates.

Ebook editions typically include all future updates. With paperbacks, you're stuck with whatever is current at the time of printing.

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