Should ebooks be free or at least much cheaper?
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Re: Should ebooks be free or at least much cheaper?
I mean, obviously, everyone involved still needs to be paid for their effort, and that's enough of a reason to argue against this.
But that's not really what's been bothering me.
How many of those who think ebooks should be cheaper/free see no problem paying more than the cost of most books for a game they never actually have, that's just downloaded right to their switch (or whatever other console)?
It just sucks that we dismiss authors, often because of the "Richard Castle" problem (assuming most authors are disgustingly rich), when the truth is that most (meaning nearly all of them) are writing in their free time while working one or more other jobs to support themselves.
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Grief is just love with no place to go.
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I certainly see your point that author's deserve their fair share for the work that they put in. My issue is that e-books often inflate the prices without giving the author their fair share.Gravy wrote: ↑19 Jun 2022, 20:13 This topic has always bothered me, but I've only just realized why.
I mean, obviously, everyone involved still needs to be paid for their effort, and that's enough of a reason to argue against this.
But that's not really what's been bothering me.
How many of those who think ebooks should be cheaper/free see no problem paying more than the cost of most books for a game they never actually have, that's just downloaded right to their switch (or whatever other console)?
It just sucks that we dismiss authors, often because of the "Richard Castle" problem (assuming most authors are disgustingly rich), when the truth is that most (meaning nearly all of them) are writing in their free time while working one or more other jobs to support themselves.
The price of physical books may include the author, editor, distributor, marketer, and the printer. A digital book must include all the same but there is no cost associated with a printer. If you remove a printer from the total cost, but keep the price the same, that means that someone is making more for less work, and often times that is the distributor.
Amazon is the biggest distributor for e-books and they have two royalty options for authors, 35% and 70%. I believe that the 70% option is if you agree for Amazon to have sole distribution rights for something like 10 years. Those royalty options for authors are the same if a digital or a physical copy is sold. That means that Amazon will make 65% or 30% respectively even if there was no cost incurred by Amazon for printing and delivery.
This is why I believe that e-books should be cheaper. It has nothing to do with the author getting paid. It is the distributors who are taking advantage of their platform to reap outsized profits at the expense of the consumer with no additional compensation to the authors.
- Gravy
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(In my reply, I'll be referring to trad. pub. books. Obviously, self published books will work out differently. At least in some cases.)Michael Villanueva wrote: ↑20 Jun 2022, 11:04I certainly see your point that author's deserve their fair share for the work that they put in. My issue is that e-books often inflate the prices without giving the author their fair share.Gravy wrote: ↑19 Jun 2022, 20:13 This topic has always bothered me, but I've only just realized why.
I mean, obviously, everyone involved still needs to be paid for their effort, and that's enough of a reason to argue against this.
But that's not really what's been bothering me.
How many of those who think ebooks should be cheaper/free see no problem paying more than the cost of most books for a game they never actually have, that's just downloaded right to their switch (or whatever other console)?
It just sucks that we dismiss authors, often because of the "Richard Castle" problem (assuming most authors are disgustingly rich), when the truth is that most (meaning nearly all of them) are writing in their free time while working one or more other jobs to support themselves.
The price of physical books may include the author, editor, distributor, marketer, and the printer. A digital book must include all the same but there is no cost associated with a printer. If you remove a printer from the total cost, but keep the price the same, that means that someone is making more for less work, and often times that is the distributor.
Amazon is the biggest distributor for e-books and they have two royalty options for authors, 35% and 70%. I believe that the 70% option is if you agree for Amazon to have sole distribution rights for something like 10 years. Those royalty options for authors are the same if a digital or a physical copy is sold. That means that Amazon will make 65% or 30% respectively even if there was no cost incurred by Amazon for printing and delivery.
This is why I believe that e-books should be cheaper. It has nothing to do with the author getting paid. It is the distributors who are taking advantage of their platform to reap outsized profits at the expense of the consumer with no additional compensation to the authors.
The problem here is that most people (as indicated by this thread and the majority of those who argue FOR ebook piracy) think authors aren't the ones losing, but they are.
Also, the price difference between the formats per book is less then a $. Printing, shipping, and storage are literally the cheapest parts of creating a book, and are broken up among so many books (and due to this are often even cheaper) as to make it negligible.
Also, all those cheap ebook sales? Bad for authors. Their share (the books "earnings") is where that discount is coming from. Which also means it takes that many more books being sold for the book to earn out.
Fighting against the price isn't hurting the companies (including Amazon). It's hurting authors and, in the end, readers.
I've had countless authors stop writing, not because no one read their books, but because too many people think piracy is the way to stick it to the publishers and/or Amazon.
(And yes, this thread isn't technically about piracy, but it is about the sentiment that leads to piracy.)
What is grief, if not love persevering?
Grief is just love with no place to go.
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Thank you for explaining your side. I hadn't thought about this post from the piracy perspective, and even though I disagree with some points, I also agree that this post goes beyond pricing. The online piracy issue goes back all the way to music piracy which hit its peak in the early 2000s.Gravy wrote: ↑21 Jun 2022, 22:57(In my reply, I'll be referring to trad. pub. books. Obviously, self published books will work out differently. At least in some cases.)Michael Villanueva wrote: ↑20 Jun 2022, 11:04I certainly see your point that author's deserve their fair share for the work that they put in. My issue is that e-books often inflate the prices without giving the author their fair share.Gravy wrote: ↑19 Jun 2022, 20:13 This topic has always bothered me, but I've only just realized why.
I mean, obviously, everyone involved still needs to be paid for their effort, and that's enough of a reason to argue against this.
But that's not really what's been bothering me.
How many of those who think ebooks should be cheaper/free see no problem paying more than the cost of most books for a game they never actually have, that's just downloaded right to their switch (or whatever other console)?
It just sucks that we dismiss authors, often because of the "Richard Castle" problem (assuming most authors are disgustingly rich), when the truth is that most (meaning nearly all of them) are writing in their free time while working one or more other jobs to support themselves.
The price of physical books may include the author, editor, distributor, marketer, and the printer. A digital book must include all the same but there is no cost associated with a printer. If you remove a printer from the total cost, but keep the price the same, that means that someone is making more for less work, and often times that is the distributor.
Amazon is the biggest distributor for e-books and they have two royalty options for authors, 35% and 70%. I believe that the 70% option is if you agree for Amazon to have sole distribution rights for something like 10 years. Those royalty options for authors are the same if a digital or a physical copy is sold. That means that Amazon will make 65% or 30% respectively even if there was no cost incurred by Amazon for printing and delivery.
This is why I believe that e-books should be cheaper. It has nothing to do with the author getting paid. It is the distributors who are taking advantage of their platform to reap outsized profits at the expense of the consumer with no additional compensation to the authors.
The problem here is that most people (as indicated by this thread and the majority of those who argue FOR ebook piracy) think authors aren't the ones losing, but they are.
Also, the price difference between the formats per book is less then a $. Printing, shipping, and storage are literally the cheapest parts of creating a book, and are broken up among so many books (and due to this are often even cheaper) as to make it negligible.
Also, all those cheap ebook sales? Bad for authors. Their share (the books "earnings") is where that discount is coming from. Which also means it takes that many more books being sold for the book to earn out.
Fighting against the price isn't hurting the companies (including Amazon). It's hurting authors and, in the end, readers.
I've had countless authors stop writing, not because no one read their books, but because too many people think piracy is the way to stick it to the publishers and/or Amazon.
(And yes, this thread isn't technically about piracy, but it is about the sentiment that leads to piracy.)
The two big things that the music industry did was reduce prices and provide free music to the end user. The first was accomplished by shifting focus from selling from full albums to individual songs. The second was implemented by providing their music for free on streaming platforms with ad support that gave a revenue stream to the recording artist and studio. Users could choose to listen to their music with ads or pay a subscription fee to get rid of the ads. Platforms like Pandora at the time was one of the first to do this.
When it comes to eBooks there is already a huge movement with the second solution through e-libraries. Apps like Libby, Overdrive, Cloud Library provide eBooks for free to readers through local libraries that pay royalties to authors.
As for the second solution, I do think that to further fight against piracy, eBooks could and should reduce prices. Even if we say that the costs of physical book overhead to include: printing, storage, and distribution, are negligible, the costs of downloading an eBook are near zero. The smallest of savings in dollars or cents per book is huge when accounting for the volume a publishing house or distributor like Amazon is dealing with. That is my issue with eBook pricing, even the most negligible difference in cost is still a difference, so that should be reflected in the price. I wouldn't mind it as much if those extra profits went to the author, but they are banked by the distributor.
I am very much against piracy, and no solution will ever bring piracy down to zero. Free library apps are a great move in the right direction by providing revenue to authors and distributors while fighting the "free" problem with piracy. The other tried and proven method of reducing prices could be implemented easily, they wouldn't even have to dice up their product like music did by selling singles from albums. Distributors could just reduce the cost by whatever percent would normally go to physical overhead.
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Sadly, any discount they actually offer tends to be taken from the author's share/the books ability to earn out.Michael Villanueva wrote: ↑22 Jun 2022, 09:25Thank you for explaining your side. I hadn't thought about this post from the piracy perspective, and even though I disagree with some points, I also agree that this post goes beyond pricing. The online piracy issue goes back all the way to music piracy which hit its peak in the early 2000s.Gravy wrote: ↑21 Jun 2022, 22:57(In my reply, I'll be referring to trad. pub. books. Obviously, self published books will work out differently. At least in some cases.)Michael Villanueva wrote: ↑20 Jun 2022, 11:04
I certainly see your point that author's deserve their fair share for the work that they put in. My issue is that e-books often inflate the prices without giving the author their fair share.
The price of physical books may include the author, editor, distributor, marketer, and the printer. A digital book must include all the same but there is no cost associated with a printer. If you remove a printer from the total cost, but keep the price the same, that means that someone is making more for less work, and often times that is the distributor.
Amazon is the biggest distributor for e-books and they have two royalty options for authors, 35% and 70%. I believe that the 70% option is if you agree for Amazon to have sole distribution rights for something like 10 years. Those royalty options for authors are the same if a digital or a physical copy is sold. That means that Amazon will make 65% or 30% respectively even if there was no cost incurred by Amazon for printing and delivery.
This is why I believe that e-books should be cheaper. It has nothing to do with the author getting paid. It is the distributors who are taking advantage of their platform to reap outsized profits at the expense of the consumer with no additional compensation to the authors.
The problem here is that most people (as indicated by this thread and the majority of those who argue FOR ebook piracy) think authors aren't the ones losing, but they are.
Also, the price difference between the formats per book is less then a $. Printing, shipping, and storage are literally the cheapest parts of creating a book, and are broken up among so many books (and due to this are often even cheaper) as to make it negligible.
Also, all those cheap ebook sales? Bad for authors. Their share (the books "earnings") is where that discount is coming from. Which also means it takes that many more books being sold for the book to earn out.
Fighting against the price isn't hurting the companies (including Amazon). It's hurting authors and, in the end, readers.
I've had countless authors stop writing, not because no one read their books, but because too many people think piracy is the way to stick it to the publishers and/or Amazon.
(And yes, this thread isn't technically about piracy, but it is about the sentiment that leads to piracy.)
The two big things that the music industry did was reduce prices and provide free music to the end user. The first was accomplished by shifting focus from selling from full albums to individual songs. The second was implemented by providing their music for free on streaming platforms with ad support that gave a revenue stream to the recording artist and studio. Users could choose to listen to their music with ads or pay a subscription fee to get rid of the ads. Platforms like Pandora at the time was one of the first to do this.
When it comes to eBooks there is already a huge movement with the second solution through e-libraries. Apps like Libby, Overdrive, Cloud Library provide eBooks for free to readers through local libraries that pay royalties to authors.
As for the second solution, I do think that to further fight against piracy, eBooks could and should reduce prices. Even if we say that the costs of physical book overhead to include: printing, storage, and distribution, are negligible, the costs of downloading an eBook are near zero. The smallest of savings in dollars or cents per book is huge when accounting for the volume a publishing house or distributor like Amazon is dealing with. That is my issue with eBook pricing, even the most negligible difference in cost is still a difference, so that should be reflected in the price. I wouldn't mind it as much if those extra profits went to the author, but they are banked by the distributor.
I am very much against piracy, and no solution will ever bring piracy down to zero. Free library apps are a great move in the right direction by providing revenue to authors and distributors while fighting the "free" problem with piracy. The other tried and proven method of reducing prices could be implemented easily, they wouldn't even have to dice up their product like music did by selling singles from albums. Distributors could just reduce the cost by whatever percent would normally go to physical overhead.
Also, an interesting fact about music piracy: there was a study that found that pirating music didn't actually harm the artist. This is most likely because artists make the bulk of their income from merch/performances/etc. and not from the albums themselves.
Sadly, a similar study proved that book piracy is definitely not harmless to authors, but a large portion of people use the music study to excuse book piracy.
Honestly, it all makes my head hurt, especially when there are ways to read books for free that DON'T hurt the author.
What is grief, if not love persevering?
Grief is just love with no place to go.
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I am an author of an e-book. Concerning the comment that the price should be less than a conventional book. I would mention that the price of e-books is not standard there are different price on the market. as for the books to be free, one does not realize that an author need a salary, the the percentage to be paid to the publisher, cost of a model for the cover shoot also the unforgettable one: THE TAXMAN who takes a minimum of 15% of the royalties. cost of internet and electricity among others make it a business as anything else.
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