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iPad Helping Book Publishers Gain More Control Over eBook Pricing

It occurred to me the other day

That the iPad will be the first eReader where bittorrented PDF copies of books will be easily readable. I'm sure Apple is aware of this. I wonder how this factors into business decisions on both the side of Apple and the Publishers? Is Apple ok with increased retail costs knowing hardcore tech geek fans will know where to go to get the same volumes at a "greatly reduced cost?"

I got a Kindle as a gift for my birthday last year and I've been mainly buying $6-7 pulp books that I could get cheaper used, but I've been willing to pay more for convenience. If prices shoot up, I'll go back to the paper version.

What scares me is the future where paper versions aren't a choice anymore. I know this is at least a decade or two away, but there may come a time when we have no choice but to buy DRMed, single-user texts. It's terrifying, but at the same time I realize my purchasing choices are helping make it a reality.
 
spice weasel said:
Also, what's to stop authors from self-publishing ebooks? Or maybe forming small authors' collectives for digital distribution? With all the social media tools at their disposal, word-of-mouth advertising can spread more quickly than ever. The day will soon come when large publishing houses just aren't needed in order for an author to get exposure.
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I know a few people who are working on exactly this. It just seems to be a matter of collecting the right "name" authors in order to give validity to their new "publishing house."
 
plokoonpma said:
It is a positive change, we are talking about knowledge and rich entertainment, not music that phases out when next hit surface. Books will be always there to teach, amaze and drive people to other places with imagination or other way to see things. It is a shame that in a country like USA that claims to be the best are so short sighted to respect and value the writers... It is hard enough to have a publisher that believes in you or go with a project that needs so much large investment when we talk about hard copies. On digital almost all that cost is taken away in favor of more straight approach. In the end is fair for the author/writer to ask for more money for his work. Will you work underpaid? Hell no! right.. then why you want the writer to gives his/her work almost for free?
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Man...

It was never about author... It is about Apple and then Book Publishers run by people like Rupert Murdoch and then, whatever crumbs are left on the table, might go to a author...

Put it this way - I would gladly pay $15 for a great book if I knew at least $10 went to authors pocket.

But I will never buy a book placed to me by Rupert Murdoch & co. - that guy together with rest of lying corporate and media thugs needs to hang - simple as that.

By the way - no iBooks for rest of the world but US of A - so really, at the end of the day, I can't care less anyway :)
 
Dawgson said:
That the iPad will be the first eReader where bittorrented PDF copies of books will be easily readable. I'm sure Apple is aware of this. I wonder how this factors into business decisions on both the side of Apple and the Publishers? Is Apple ok with increased retail costs knowing hardcore tech geek fans will know where to go to get the same volumes at a "greatly reduced cost?"

I got a Kindle as a gift for my birthday last year and I've been mainly buying $6-7 pulp books that I could get cheaper used, but I've been willing to pay more for convenience. If prices shoot up, I'll go back to the paper version.

What scares me is the future where paper versions aren't a choice anymore. I know this is at least a decade or two away, but there may come a time when we have no choice but to buy DRMed, single-user texts. It's terrifying, but at the same time I realize my purchasing choices are helping make it a reality.
Click to expand...

Steve might decide to block PDF access as well looking at the way he is going :D
 
theneweyes said:
Unless you jailbreak your iPad potentially you won't be able to download pirated books, just like apps for the iPhone. Unless you can open them as PDF files but I'm sure Apple is already scheming against piracy.
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You will be able to read everything in PDF or DOC (and various other) formats.
Simply send it to the device via email. (http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/ for a list of supported file formats in mails).

I also think there will be some way to sync such files with the device or a shared folder. Otherwise Apps like iWork would not make much sense.

Christian
 
maelstromr said:
Though it costs more now, competition is still good. Now publishers have an incentive to offer more and better material for the consumer, and as the market opens up, they will charge what their materials are worth. Prices for more and better things will go down at that point. It's never good to let one company, who is not producing the material, have total control over the material's value.
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What I'd really like to see is some of the popular authors directly selling their own material in the iBookstore, cutting out the publisher. After all, what are they "publishing" really? Sure it makes sense to have a publisher relationship when you need to distribute a physical product, but why pay someone to upload your digital content to Apple/Amazon? This probably wouldn't work well for less well-known authors, who need the publishers' promotion engine.
 
nelmat said:
Content producers should be able to set their own prices, this should be a fair market place.

By allowing variable pricing, you allow competition between providers.

This is good for the market place and good for the consumer. Price fixing is bad, as the agreed fixed price across multiple content creators is one that normally results in paying higher than necessary prices for older/classic content.

Apple is championing nothing, it is simply fact the content providers now have multiple avenues to choose from, rather than a monopoly.
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Isn't a group of near monopolies (i.e. The Publishers) not allowing books to be sold for a lower price actually the very definition of price fixing?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_fixing
 
-=XX=-Nephilim said:
By the way - no iBooks for rest of the world but US of A - so really, at the end of the day, I can't care less anyway :)
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I'm sure they're just working on rights, and then the rest of the world will get it. Why are people shocked when Apple (a US corporation) gets rights settled in the USA first? It's awfully complicated to go worldwide with something like a bookstore, where you have a huge amount of legacy copyright laws and agreements in place.
 
-=XX=-Nephilim said:
Steve might decide to block PDF access as well looking at the way he is going :D
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People do overstate the case, blow things out of proportion.

Apple are supporting the ePub/open format. So any ePub can be read using an open standard.

Apple do not restrict content displayed to ONLY that which is provided through iBooks, the iTunes store.

Apple have stated support on the iPad for every major, standard file format to be received via the email client.

The only thing apple appear to be restricting is the installation of the Adobe Flash plug-in.

And even that hasn't been a public statement.

Way to overstate a case and create a myth.
 
-=XX=-Nephilim said:
By the way - no iBooks for rest of the world but US of A - so really, at the end of the day, I can't care less anyway :)
Click to expand...

Are you really stating that apple do not intend to roll iBooks out across the rest of the planet, but that maybe they're waiting for distribution contracts to be negotiated and signed before announcing those deals?

Would seem to be a ridiculous statement to me.
 
Some really interesting thoughts in this thread - one of the better ones so far.

It occurs to me that ePublishing will eventually provide far greater competition between publishers and ultimately drive prices down - especially if Apple allow "vanity" publishing or half-a-dozen small publishing houses spring up to publish less commercially viable/popular works. This can only be A Good Thing.

Given the technology as we have it today it is perfectly possible to write a book on your laptop, format it into ePub and upload it to iBooks (or whatever), price it at £0.99 and let Apple/Amazon/whoever take £0.33. If you end up with a multi-million bestseller then you'll be rich. If 10 people buy your book, you can buy yourself a beer. Whether Apple/Amazon/whoever allow this to happen is, of course, another story.

My guess is that the big print publishing houses will eventually be competing both amongst themselves and with a couple of dozen small ePublishing-only houses.
 
DTphonehome said:
What I'd really like to see is some of the popular authors directly selling their own material in the iBookstore, cutting out the publisher. After all, what are they "publishing" really? Sure it makes sense to have a publisher relationship when you need to distribute a physical product, but why pay someone to upload your digital content to Apple/Amazon? This probably wouldn't work well for less well-known authors, who need the publishers' promotion engine.
Click to expand...

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/...ime-soon-a-deeply-slanted-play-in-three-acts/

I'm sure one or two authors might want to do that, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of authors, big or not, will run screaming from all the work that publishers take care of. Writers want to write, not do all that other stuff.
 
seems to me this means higher prices to consumers. Publishers will get same amount of money and Apple and Authors will see a bump in income.

So in theory the publishers will see less Percentage of profit. they will not simply be fine making less, but less in proportion to the other increases.


When prices go up i slow down purchases. Saw many books at Target/other bookstores priced on back at $9.99 and up for paperbacks! sorry not crazy about that either. I wonder (as others have) if Libraries will be able to offer ebooks for checkout.

and as a pricing point. i do see some books offered cheaper but many over teh "regular" price. and if people buy less of the high books they might see that and lower them sooner.
 
An ebook with DRM is a _RENTAL_

JGowan said:
Think about it. $12.99-$14.99 is a fair price
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I'm willing to pay that for an ebook without DRM. With DRM, an ebook is merely a rental that cannot be loaned or used in any way that the DRM provider deems unprofitable for it. As Amazon has shown us, it can even be deleted without our consent.

Finally, note that the marginal cost of an ebook is essentially zero. The publishers should reduce the price of the ebook by about the cost of production of the physical book.

How much is a movie rental? About $1 - $2. With DRM, that sounds like a fair ebook price.
 
fago said:
Finally, note that the marginal cost of an ebook is essentially zero. The publishers should reduce the price of the ebook by about the cost of production of the physical book.
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That's about 20%.
 
Before Apple entered into the negotiations, Amazon was making 70 percent off of the & 9.99 price of an ebook. Amazon made $6.66, and the Publisher made $3.33.

Then Apple entered into discussions and said that they will sell ebooks in the iTunes store for 30%. Apple will also support variable pricing.

Amazon comes back and matches the 30%. MacMillan then states that they will move to Apple if Amazon doesn't match the variable pricing. Amazon shuts off all MacMillan stores. After much whining by Amazon, Amazon agrees to variable pricing.

MacMillan now is stating that they will renegotiate with the authors guild implying better return for the authors.

From now on, Publishers will track the market making pricing adjustments to maximize profits. For popular Authors and sequels, it may take a long time for consumers to see price decreases, but eventually, pricing will hit the same lows as Amazon previously had.

Looking at this from Amazon's view, they took a big hit.

From the Publishers view, they get better return and more pricing granularity.

From the consumers view, pricing will be higher initially, but ultimately pricing will be as low as the previous pricing.

From the Authors point of view, it will probably be a significant improvement in return.

My point of view is that Authors making more return will probably increase the variety and numbers of ebooks available.

That is good for Apple and everybody else.
 
cjbryce said:
Some really interesting thoughts in this thread - one of the better ones so far.

It occurs to me that ePublishing will eventually provide far greater competition between publishers and ultimately drive prices down - especially if Apple allow "vanity" publishing or half-a-dozen small publishing houses spring up to publish less commercially viable/popular works. This can only be A Good Thing.
Click to expand...

Another thought is that price changes can be done much more rapidly to match demand. Whether it WILL be changed is up in the air (Amazon apparently doesn't change their Kindle prices), but a much more rapid move down the price curve is not out of the question.
 
Absolutely ridiculous crying from some of you people here. Apple has fought a long time against those money hungry musicians in terms of raising prices in iTunes. After the eBook prices getting a hike due to Apple's deal with the publishers, you now hate Apple and are placing blame on them?

Yeah, if it was any of you people that were book publishers you would be trying to get every dollar you can from the customer. :rolleyes: I sometimes wonder why any of you are Apple's customers at all? There are alternatives you know.
 
Mattie Num Nums said:
Slippery slope for sure.

Are book publishers raising prices because Apple is charging more?
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Publishers aren't "raising prices" they're removing limits set by distributors which simply wouldn't be allowed to happen in the physical retail domain.

They're exerting the right to charge for their content as they see fit, and employ a variable pricing policy.

Market forces are such that if the publishers charge to highly, people won't buy. This isn't anything new in the world of economics.

I also read with interest arguments against DRM. Lending a book to one person is of course your right. But the ability to duplicate the content without limit and release it into the public domain is simply not right. People will do this. Inevitably DRM will be bypassed eventually.

The world of publishing is not as cash rich as the world of music and film, the industry cannot stand the sort of losses that music companies are now facing, EMI announced losses of more than $1 Billion today, that would obliterate most publishing houses.
 
gwangung said:
That's about 20%.
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20% to print, ship, stock, inventory, remainder, etc? I'm talking about the entire supply chain here.

So for a $25 hardcover, if all costs except typsetting and author royalties is $5, what is the other $20? Massive overhead due to CEO salaries?
 
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