Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos • Hacker News Board

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#11

Post by cmaggard » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:48 PM UTC

kops wrote: post #10

haraball wrote: post #2

O'Reilly is having sale and discounts so often that I avoid buying books at the full price while waiting for a coupon. This often ends with me forgetting about the book and not buying it at all.

Same here. But on rare occasions when I do avail the buy-one-get-one-free offer, the second book invariably goes unread. Also does anyone know why these 50% discount offers are limited to ebooks only?

Because the margin is obviously higher on ebooks than print books. I imagine that more profit is made on an ebook sale at 50% off than a print book at full price.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#12

Post by polynomial » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:54 PM UTC

This is pretty unnecessary here.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#13

Post by soedgy » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 2:58 PM UTC

Refefer wrote: post #7

prawks wrote: post #4

I wish they'd have some sales on physical books. Maybe it's just my traditional thinking, but I have a hard time paying $20+ for a pdf. I understand the publisher needs money, the author has to eat, and the printing costs aren't really a whole ton that you can reduce the price with, but it still just doesn't sit right with me. I feel like and old curmudgeon. Side edit: In what kind of strange world does the 2nd editi…

I'm with you: I like good old dead tree books for so many reasons such as writing in the margins. They should follow Manning books philosophy and also discount physical books as well, a feature which has resulted in my acquiring 10+ books by them.

>dead tree books

Go back to reddit, kid.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#14

Post by kops » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 3:12 PM UTC

cmaggard wrote: post #11

kops wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. But on rare occasions when I do avail the buy-one-get-one-free offer, the second book invariably goes unread. Also does anyone know why these 50% discount offers are limited to ebooks only?

Because the margin is obviously higher on ebooks than print books. I imagine that more profit is made on an ebook sale at 50% off than a print book at full price.

Thanks, that seems to be the only reasonable explanation.

Comparing the prices of a book on oreilly[1] and bookdepository.co.uk[2] seems to suggest a print book has about 50%(just a guess) margin while the ebooks sells for almost 100% margin once it is produced. So knocking the prices of ebook down to 50% to drive sales would make sense. Thanks again,

[1]http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596529321.do

[2]http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Programming-Collective-Intel... I assumed that these guys buy the book for 20 dollars and sell for 20 euros and make 25-30% profit. Great site btw with free worldwide shipping although delivery takes anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#15

Post by jacobbudin » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 3:15 PM UTC

O'Reilly uses a department store pricing structure.

There's almost always a sale, and for eBooks, the sale price is usually not much cheaper than Amazon.com's (or other sellers) "everyday" price. Only suckers pay full-price for their eBooks.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#16

Post by pydanny » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 3:30 PM UTC

cmaggard wrote: post #11

kops wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. But on rare occasions when I do avail the buy-one-get-one-free offer, the second book invariably goes unread. Also does anyone know why these 50% discount offers are limited to ebooks only?

Because the margin is obviously higher on ebooks than print books. I imagine that more profit is made on an ebook sale at 50% off than a print book at full price.

As soon as you involve Amazon, that's surprisingly not true. Really.

O'Reilly makes more on e-book sales directly through their on-line store then they do on print. However, every e-book they sell via Amazon, their margins are very, very different. Here's a rough guide for a $40 book:

* O'Reilly E-Book Online Store: Approx 99% margin or $39.60

* O'Reilly Store selling print book (bulk print discount assumed): 95% margin or $38.00

* Amazon selling print book (bulk print discount assumed): Approx 90% margin or $36.00

* Amazon selling kindle e-book: 35% margin or $14.00 (minus the Amazon processing fee so it's actually worse)

Odds are the bulk of O'Reilly e-book sales are probably done on Amazon, where the margin is AWFUL. The constant huge sales by O'Reilly are a way to recoup the painful margins insisted upon by Amazon.

Yeah, Amazon makes boatloads off of kindle book sales.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#17

Post by kops » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 3:48 PM UTC

pydanny wrote: post #16

cmaggard wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the margin is obviously higher on ebooks than print books. I imagine that more profit is made on an ebook sale at 50% off than a print book at full price.

As soon as you involve Amazon, that's surprisingly not true. Really. O'Reilly makes more on e-book sales directly through their on-line store then they do on print. However, every e-book they sell via Amazon, their margins are very, very different. Here's a rough guide for a $40 book: * O'Reilly E-Book Online Store: Approx 99% margin or $39.60 * O'Reilly Store selling print book (bulk print discount assumed): 95% mar…

* O'Reilly Store selling print book (bulk print discount assumed): 95% margin or $38.00

Is that really the kind of margins they operate at or is that a typo?

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#18

Post by freehunter » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 4:03 PM UTC

soedgy wrote: post #13

Refefer wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you: I like good old dead tree books for so many reasons such as writing in the margins. They should follow Manning books philosophy and also discount physical books as well, a feature which has resulted in my acquiring 10+ books by them.

>dead tree books Go back to reddit, kid.

>Go back to reddit, kid.

The one-hour-old account says to the two year old account.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#19

Post by ekianjo » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 4:17 PM UTC

ehamberg wrote: post #5

prawks wrote: post #4

I wish they'd have some sales on physical books. Maybe it's just my traditional thinking, but I have a hard time paying $20+ for a pdf. I understand the publisher needs money, the author has to eat, and the printing costs aren't really a whole ton that you can reduce the price with, but it still just doesn't sit right with me. I feel like and old curmudgeon. Side edit: In what kind of strange world does the 2nd editi…

Just for the record: You don't just get a PDF. You get a real e-book too.

WHatever. you are missing the point. Copying ebooks cost no money at all, there's no reason an ebook should cost that much in the first place. Dead Tree books were heavily dependent on material and inventory costs, ebooks do not suffer any of those yet they are still sold at similar pricing while they should be at least 90% cheaper, if you just kept the margin at the same level. It's pure profit for the publisher.

Re: Save 50% on All O'Reilly Ebooks and Videos

#20

Post by tomstuart » Fri, Aug 30, 2013, 4:18 PM UTC

mjhoy wrote: post #9

I just picked up Understanding Computation and, having made it through the first two chapters at this point, heartily recommend it. If anyone wants to have a little reading group, I'd be interested. http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025481.do

Author here. Thanks for the recommendation! There’s already a reading group in London (http://lanyrd.com/series/compbookclub/), but that may not be of any use to you.

If anyone else is interested in the book, there's more information at http://computationbook.com/.