Penguin Random House is buying Simon and Schuster. That’s bad for readers

washingtonpost.com

20 points·ValentineC··5 comments

I can’t stand Penguin’s ebook price fixing. Ebooks should not be almost the same price as a hard copy!

This is bad.

Legitimate question: is there a strong economic argument for this line of reasoning? How much of the price of a physical book is actually for the commodities and distribution, and how much is for the content itself, marketing, contracts, etc., which remain the same regardless of medium.

I ask because I also see this argument frequently made about digital video games, but it’s a little too reductive to be a clear cut deal. With video games, you really aren’t paying for the commodities and distribution (discs, packaging, etc. make up a insignificant portion of the pricing). You’re paying for the development team, the marketing, the content itself (value-based pricing), etc. I realize books have different economics than games — especially considering there is usually ONE writer, not a massive team — so I ask this in good faith. I am very interested in the topic.

Should a physical version of a product (book, game) be priced the same or at a higher price as a non-physical version given the added costs associated with production?

Should we encourage the consumption of physical items given the eventual waste they produce?

It really just depends if the costs of the physical version’s packaging and distribution was ever even costed into the product in the first place. And even if it was, there’s the offsetting cloud and digital storefront costs. It’s a really interesting discussion. I don’t think it’s cut and dry.

To add more to the discussion, books and game are value-priced, aren’t they?

Somewhat ironic that Jeff Bezos' newspaper is mourning consolidation in the publishing industry...

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