eBook Pricing Still Hotly Contested Issue

Despite the well-documented and sound studies conducted by some of the top companies in ebook retailing, and in spite of the Department of Justice lawsuit involving the alleged price fixing between Apple and five of the then-Big Six publishers, ebook pricing still seems to mystify industry professionals and consumers alike. An article that appeared in the New York Times over the holiday weekend clearly placed the blame for some of the confusion squarely on the shoulders of everyone’s favorite publishing whipping boy, Amazon. And admittedly, with the clout that Amazon has within the bookselling industry, it’s possible that some of the price changes books have undergone in recent years have to do with solid competition from the retail giant. One often overlooked fact is that books are simply priced at different standards internationally, a concept that many self-published authors tend to forget when pricing their ebooks. But as international retail markets abound, that is changing as well. Customers who were once accustomed to paying a higher price point for a book are now beginning to take notice that consumers in other countries pay a significantly less percentage of their income for the same book. Additionally, as Mark Lefebvre of Kobo’s Writing Life platform pointed out in an interview with GoodEReader in May, books have also priced differently according to genre due to the different costs of production of print editions of various genres. What was considered a reasonable price for a poetry collection or photoessay book would never be deemed appropriate by consumers for a mass market paperback. But as digital publishing opened the doors to inexpensive editions of books of every genre, authors and publishers are finding it difficult to convince consumers to pay more for a book that traditionally enjoyed a higher price point. One interesting aspect of ebook pricing is that it seems to be a topic that not many publishers care to discuss, as though the price of a book is somehow a proprietary secret that consumers won’t learn the instant they attempt to purchase the book. And in the current climate in which an offhanded remark or a simple email can end up as evidence in a price fixing trial, it’s easy to understand why. What the industry and the consumers need to take away from pricing is what has been known since the digital revolution first began: everything is changing. The publishing industry can continue to rail against the fast-paced changes and the startups can continue to throw their funds into the next big thing, but only entities that are willing to adapt while still keeping a firm grasp on what works and what doesn’t work will continue to thrive in this market. eBook Pricing Still Hotly Contested Issue is a post from: E-Reader News

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