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Sheleigha
Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 1671
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 Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:42 am
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| dragonrider_cody wrote: | |
Actually, you are 100% incorrect on this. Actually printing the books costs very little money. Many industry sources have said it averages less than 50 cents a book. Even when you factor in distribution and processing, the costs only rise to a couple bucks. Hell, I have friends that publish on create space/Amazon and even the printing costs there are only a small portion of their fees. The majority of the expenses are from things like editing, proofing, legal costs, and profit shares to the writers. Do you think actually printing DVDs costs more than producing the content? |
It's definately not the price of the physical goods itself, but everything else that goes along with it that makes up the expense. A disk/paper is whatever price, but there are so many more fees involved with making up and mass producing and selling it to retailers, that make it to its pricepoint.
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joelgundam00
Joined: 27 Feb 2008
Posts: 153
Location: Western NY
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 11:59 am
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| walw6pK4Alo wrote: |
| Cecilthedarkknight_234 wrote: | | hmm i am not sure how this end up for manga in the states since most is just re-publishing. |
It affects light novels, doesn't it? There have to be some that are sold as e-books. |
Not only that, but Simon & Schuster who is part of the lawsuit is Viz's distributor for their manga arm.
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Polycell
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:31 pm
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| Soundmonkey44 wrote: | Meh, guess its good that they are trying to get companies to make E-books cheaper, personally doesn't matter to me though as I only buy REAL books & comics.
VIVA PAPER!!! 
*shot repeatedly by environmentalists.* |
Most paper these days comes from tree farms. It's a lot more efficient(read: environmentally friendly) than recycled stuff and higher quality to boot.
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tuxedocat
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:51 pm
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| Polycell wrote: |
| tuxedocat wrote: | | The price of e-books has been rising to the extent that some titles equal or even exceed the cost of a print edition. This is frankly ridiculous considering the production costs are greatly reduced. |
*AWOOOGAH AWOOOOOGAH* Economic fallacy detected! Cost has nothing to do with price, which is determined solely by what the market will bear; in this case, that happens to be higher than what it'll bear for dead wood. That's not a symptom of collusion, simply a sign buyers of ebooks value them more dearly than buyers of printed books(much like this lawsuit's a sign some also-ran's got pull in the DoJ). |
Apples/oranges.
Are you seriously saying that they are raising prices simply because people are willing to pay whatever? I don't think so. Consumers notice these things.
What you are saying makes sense when applied to physical media, but runs counter to the whole ideology behind e-books.
What I've been noticing is a lot of people going back to physical copies. Even the romance novel fans, who were a big part of the initial e-reader push, are returning to physical copies since they are not getting any savings. OR - they are waiting the 6 months to a year for the e-book price to drop. This hurts the author in the long run, since publishers base a lot of contract negotiations on first week sales. Placement on the NY Times list benefits the author in these negotiations.
I still buy physical copies, especially hardcover for my library. I usually purchase e-books when the particular title is only available as a mass-market paperback edition, since I can enlarge the typeface as needed. When the price for both is pretty much the same, however, I end up buying the physical copy from my local independent bookstore.
Lately I've been doing it a lot more, then donating the paperback to the library.
As for manga, it is always going to be print for me going forward, as the apps for android are not very good. So far. The ipad app works just fine. --And the e-book prices are cheaper too on the ipad. You just have to buy an ipad. That's what I think this is about.
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tuxedocat
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 1:57 pm
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| Polycell wrote: |
| Soundmonkey44 wrote: | Meh, guess its good that they are trying to get companies to make E-books cheaper, personally doesn't matter to me though as I only buy REAL books & comics.
VIVA PAPER!!!
*shot repeatedly by environmentalists.* |
Most paper these days comes from tree farms. It's a lot more efficient(read: environmentally friendly) than recycled stuff and higher quality to boot. |
The problem is the paper mills. Extremely toxic byproducts. Not a problem in China, but here we have regulations, and dealing with those regulations costs $$. So sure, for now we can buy cheap paper from China, but even they are starting to notice how much pollution is generated by the paper mills.
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Polycell
Joined: 16 Jan 2012
Posts: 4623
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:14 pm
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| tuxedocat wrote: | | Are you seriously saying that they are raising prices simply because people are willing to pay whatever? I don't think so. Consumers notice these things.
What you are saying makes sense when applied to physical media, but runs counter to the whole ideology behind e-books. |
While savings are one benefit of ebooks, convenience is also a big thing(there is much to be said about the benefits of having a large library at your fingertips). How much consumers value the advantages of each format remains to be seen - the ebook market is far from mature and finding the market clearing price for anything is pretty much a guessing game. But, yes, they're only able to get away with higher prices as long as consumers are willing to pay them - nobody would buy unless he thought the product worth more than the cost.
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tuxedocat
Joined: 14 Dec 2009
Posts: 2183
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Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2012 2:58 pm
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| Polycell wrote: |
| tuxedocat wrote: | | Are you seriously saying that they are raising prices simply because people are willing to pay whatever? I don't think so. Consumers notice these things.
What you are saying makes sense when applied to physical media, but runs counter to the whole ideology behind e-books. |
While savings are one benefit of ebooks, convenience is also a big thing(there is much to be said about the benefits of having a large library at your fingertips). How much consumers value the advantages of each format remains to be seen - the ebook market is far from mature and finding the market clearing price for anything is pretty much a guessing game. But, yes, they're only able to get away with higher prices as long as consumers are willing to pay them - nobody would buy unless he thought the product worth more than the cost. |
I can agree with pretty much everything you have said there, but I am very skeptical about how long they can get away with what they are doing with e-book pricing.
I have been seeing a lot of push back from different sources when it comes to the rising prices. Authors, for one, have been feeling like the higher prices on the e-books have been marginalizing their first-week sales, giving the publisher more leverage in negotiations. Many want to dump the publisher altogether, but are trapped in a "first right of refusal" clause. They are also tired of seeing poor consumer reviews that have nothing to to with the content of their novels, but are just used as forums for (1-star) complaints about e-book prices.
Then there are the consumers who are waiting the year for the price drop, or are checking the book out from the library and not buying it at all. I've noticed that the people who purchase e-books for environmental reasons are falling in the latter category.
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enurtsol
Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14756
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 5:17 am
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In other news, romance novels seem to be bucking the trend and actually selling well, while other categories have been falling. 
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