During media megaconglomorate News Corp’s earnings call – which owns publisher HarperCollins – the Dark Lord Rupert Murdoch reveals, “We don’t like the Amazon model of $US9.99… we think it really devalues books and hurts all the retailers of hardcover books.” Ruh roh.
It seems brutally clear that every publisher is going to shift to the agency model: They set their own price for books, and whoever’s selling it takes a cut. Sure, they get less absolute dollars per book than selling it wholesale – say, selling it to Amazon for $US15, who takes a $US5 hit to sell it for $US9.99 – but they’re convinced it’ll preserve the value of books. I’m sure that’s exactly what’s going to happen when ebook prices everywhere creep up by several dollars – people will totally think they’re worth more. [MediaMemo]
RawPrawn
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 12:18 PMPublishers look to clean up with the growth of eBooks. No printing costs, no storage, wastage, remainders, transport and no resale value. Are authors going to receive a corresponding increase in their payments or is the profit margin of publishers going to significantly increase.
Currently a paper book has a nominated resale value whereas an eBook is a single license (a bit like the crap Steam licensing model). If the eBook market continues to grow, then the opportunity for to purchase second-hand books diminishes, forcing those consumers into purchase of a new book.
Are the number of hardware manufacturers leaping into the eReader market all driven by the Kindle success? Assuming that a decent percentage of Kindle sales are early adopters or must-have gadget heads (like me), is the eBook market really going to be the future or books? I personally hope not, I like sitting in bed or in a park, flicking through a book. Firing up my kindle or iPad just isn’t the same.
Paul Preston
Wednesday, February 3, 2010 at 1:44 PMi think, publishers should focus on deluxe hardcover books and let softcovers compete with the 9.99 price tag of ebooks it seems fair, there will always be demand for normal books anywya