Giant Rats
Today's Ricky's fourth birthday. Some how, some way he got me to offer? agree? to take him to the local Chuck E. Cheese for his birthday. Melissa took the day off and they're at gymnastics now. When they get back, off we go. Only there's no such thing as a local Chuck E. Cheese. We live in a small town closer to Canada than to a city. The nearest Chuck E. Cheese is one hundred and seven miles away. Each way. May the God of Carbon Offsets forgive our souls.
So by way of a quick post, the issue of high prices for e-books has been bumping around in my brain and I haven't been able to shake them out. Why should a book, delivered as an electronic download rather than, say, a book, have to cost as much or more than its paperback equivalent? There's no fossil fuel burning freight charges, packing labor, cardboard box, etc. etc.
And then I finished a book this past weekend, a brand new hardcover history of the CIA, that before I even picked it up showed signs of cocking. It didn't arrive that way and was stored upright on a shelf in an appropriately controlled climate. As I read it, the binding (sewn, not glued) cracked and complained repeatedly. It made me think of that publishing exec's opinion that books should be deliberately made of disposable quality in order to crush the expanding used book market. Are they actually doing it?
Putting the two concepts together, it made me wonder if the prices for e-books aren't where they are because that's where market forces dictate they be, but because that's the target, the price level that the publishers want when (hopefully if) they actually start to sell.
In other words, if they can keep raising prices on new books, from brain-damaged concepts like the inch-taller mass market paperbacks to shoddily made first edition hardcovers, at some point e-books may become more attractive to people than they are now. Rather than entice readers with an easily distributed lower priced product, they'll drive people away from expensive traditional books, leaving them the one option. At a price point they're comfortable with, one with lower costs and higher profit margins.
Sadly, I don't find this far-fetched in the least. Sad, sneaky and underhanded, yes, but not inconceivable by any means. I can't really think of another reason why e-book prices wouldn't reflect the economies they represent. A cheaper, more accessible product would mean more readers, and more readers means a healthier publishing industry. But that may make too much sense.
The only other reason I could come up with is only half as sinister, but still as ugly, is that publishers simply don't care about e-books. Charge whatever, you sell a few, you sell a few; they're not on the radar. Either way, cluelessness abounds. Maybe it just abounds to me, though: I don't get it any way you slice it. Book lovers are your best readers, your best readers are your best customers, your best readers ought to be begetting more best readers, publishers ought to be making it easier to buy and read books (and feel better about it).
But I don't live in the real world. Mine has a local pizza parlor with a giant mouse within a mere two hundred and fourteen mile round trip. While Melissa drives I'm going to read chapters from "The Mystery of the Screaming Clock" to the kids. From paper, even.
So by way of a quick post, the issue of high prices for e-books has been bumping around in my brain and I haven't been able to shake them out. Why should a book, delivered as an electronic download rather than, say, a book, have to cost as much or more than its paperback equivalent? There's no fossil fuel burning freight charges, packing labor, cardboard box, etc. etc.
And then I finished a book this past weekend, a brand new hardcover history of the CIA, that before I even picked it up showed signs of cocking. It didn't arrive that way and was stored upright on a shelf in an appropriately controlled climate. As I read it, the binding (sewn, not glued) cracked and complained repeatedly. It made me think of that publishing exec's opinion that books should be deliberately made of disposable quality in order to crush the expanding used book market. Are they actually doing it?
Putting the two concepts together, it made me wonder if the prices for e-books aren't where they are because that's where market forces dictate they be, but because that's the target, the price level that the publishers want when (hopefully if) they actually start to sell.
In other words, if they can keep raising prices on new books, from brain-damaged concepts like the inch-taller mass market paperbacks to shoddily made first edition hardcovers, at some point e-books may become more attractive to people than they are now. Rather than entice readers with an easily distributed lower priced product, they'll drive people away from expensive traditional books, leaving them the one option. At a price point they're comfortable with, one with lower costs and higher profit margins.
Sadly, I don't find this far-fetched in the least. Sad, sneaky and underhanded, yes, but not inconceivable by any means. I can't really think of another reason why e-book prices wouldn't reflect the economies they represent. A cheaper, more accessible product would mean more readers, and more readers means a healthier publishing industry. But that may make too much sense.
The only other reason I could come up with is only half as sinister, but still as ugly, is that publishers simply don't care about e-books. Charge whatever, you sell a few, you sell a few; they're not on the radar. Either way, cluelessness abounds. Maybe it just abounds to me, though: I don't get it any way you slice it. Book lovers are your best readers, your best readers are your best customers, your best readers ought to be begetting more best readers, publishers ought to be making it easier to buy and read books (and feel better about it).
But I don't live in the real world. Mine has a local pizza parlor with a giant mouse within a mere two hundred and fourteen mile round trip. While Melissa drives I'm going to read chapters from "The Mystery of the Screaming Clock" to the kids. From paper, even.
posted by Rick Ollerman at 10:08 AM
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