Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#21

Post by araneae » Sun, Dec 06, 2009, 11:21 PM UTC

Estragon wrote: post #16

xcombinator wrote: post #8

In the next years, any good book is going to be pirated in the net.In fact, it is today for those that know how to search. Finding books are going to be easier as copying a book is made simpler and more people want to do it because they have e-reader hardware(people in the hundred of millions instead that in the thousands). So people will have two options: 1)Decide to pay what the publishers want. 2)Decide it's too m…

any good book is going to be pirated in the net.In fact, it is today for those that know how to search. How?

Google. You can usually find a torrent or something on megaupload.

I just got a bunch of e-books I had been trying to take out of the library for years, unsuccessfully (all the copies were missing or somesuch; they were kind of rare.)

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#22

Post by billswift » Sun, Dec 06, 2009, 11:26 PM UTC

The article was pulling at least some of the numbers ($2 loss per ebook, authors take 10%) out of thin air (I almost wrote somewhere less polite), which destroys any value to his "analysis".

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#23

Post by antipaganda » Sun, Dec 06, 2009, 11:41 PM UTC

Estragon wrote: post #16

xcombinator wrote: post #8

In the next years, any good book is going to be pirated in the net.In fact, it is today for those that know how to search. Finding books are going to be easier as copying a book is made simpler and more people want to do it because they have e-reader hardware(people in the hundred of millions instead that in the thousands). So people will have two options: 1)Decide to pay what the publishers want. 2)Decide it's too m…

any good book is going to be pirated in the net.In fact, it is today for those that know how to search. How?

#bookz on IRC, undernet.

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#24

Post by lmkg » Mon, Dec 07, 2009, 12:07 AM UTC

mattmaroon wrote: post #14

People always apply the laws of supply and demand oblivious to other factors. They say "well if we just lower the price, more people will buy these books". That isn't necessarily true because people can only devote so much time to reading. Much of the investment a person makes in a book isn't money (at least not directly) it's time. It's entirely possible that the price of books is set by other factors, such as compe…

While the number of pages being read may remain relatively constant, that wouldn't mean that ebook pages are basically constant. It means that paper books and ebooks are in a zero-sum game with each other, and the price of ebooks could influence the balance between them.

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#25

Post by bokonist » Mon, Dec 07, 2009, 12:19 AM UTC

mattmaroon wrote: post #14

People always apply the laws of supply and demand oblivious to other factors. They say "well if we just lower the price, more people will buy these books". That isn't necessarily true because people can only devote so much time to reading. Much of the investment a person makes in a book isn't money (at least not directly) it's time. It's entirely possible that the price of books is set by other factors, such as compe…

Part of the risk in buying a book, is in buying a book that you don't want to invest the time in, and that will end up sitting on the shelf. What Amazon really should to is charge by the page read. This will allow people to have a more enjoyable experience per page read (since they'll start reading books they might not have bought otherwise, and will not feel obligated to finish books they bought but do not like). If they have a more enjoyable experience per page read, they will be willing to spend more. $.05 a page read for non-fiction, and $.02 a page for fiction would be a good price.

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#26

Post by psyklic » Mon, Dec 07, 2009, 1:22 AM UTC

I don't understand why it is assumed that the author's royalty should DECREASE for e-books. If anything, the author's words are even more important than before! I suppose that e-books give publishers an opportunity to renegotiate contracts in their favor, but won't author royalties creep back up again?

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#27

Post by 687 » Mon, Dec 07, 2009, 4:53 AM UTC

Estragon wrote: post #16

xcombinator wrote: post #8

In the next years, any good book is going to be pirated in the net.In fact, it is today for those that know how to search. Finding books are going to be easier as copying a book is made simpler and more people want to do it because they have e-reader hardware(people in the hundred of millions instead that in the thousands). So people will have two options: 1)Decide to pay what the publishers want. 2)Decide it's too m…

any good book is going to be pirated in the net.In fact, it is today for those that know how to search. How?

http://gigapedia.com/

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#28

Post by vijayr » Mon, Dec 07, 2009, 2:00 PM UTC

xcombinator wrote: post #8

In the next years, any good book is going to be pirated in the net.In fact, it is today for those that know how to search. Finding books are going to be easier as copying a book is made simpler and more people want to do it because they have e-reader hardware(people in the hundred of millions instead that in the thousands). So people will have two options: 1)Decide to pay what the publishers want. 2)Decide it's too m…

I am not sure of this - In the next years, any good book is going to be pirated in the net

There is so much junk published these days (how do they manage to make money with such junk, is beyond me), so if I find a good book, I want to spend money and buy it (assuming of course, that I can afford it), just to encourage the author/publisher. The quality of publishing is going to go down even further (just take a look at clickbank and other sites advertising "how to make money with ebooks").

Publishers/Authors can complain all they want, but the truth is we simply do not have authors like we had before (Frost, Dickens etc).

I can't speak for others, but if I find a good author/book I want to spend money on their books.

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#29

Post by michael_nielsen » Mon, Dec 07, 2009, 7:47 PM UTC

patrickgzill wrote: post #13

cstross wrote: post #3

Money shot: In any event, in order for the e-reader market to thrive publishers must lower their wholesale prices so that distributors can turn a reasonable profit. We believe that if the price is lowered enough publishers may earn less per unit, but could ultimately earn more in overall revenue and profit through a greater number of sales. Except they can't. I gather (can't cite my source) that amazon were leaning o…

Your percentages are WAY off. Bookstores get 40% off, distributors such as Ingram or Baker and Taylor get 60%. So distributors have to run all aspects of billing and order fulfillment and shipment in return for 20% . Anything over that you have to buy non-returnable or do via special sales (book clubs for instance get more of a discount but buy non-returnable and minimum order size 5000 or 10K books at a time) usuall…

You might want to check who you're replying to. cstross isn't as famous as Stephen King, but in science fiction he's one of the best-known contemporary authors.

Personally, I'm in a very different sector of the book market than cstross, but what I know is entirely consistent with what he said.

Re: Amazon loses about $2 for every e-book

#30

Post by patrickgzill » Mon, Dec 07, 2009, 10:41 PM UTC

michael_nielsen wrote: post #29

patrickgzill wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your percentages are WAY off. Bookstores get 40% off, distributors such as Ingram or Baker and Taylor get 60%. So distributors have to run all aspects of billing and order fulfillment and shipment in return for 20% . Anything over that you have to buy non-returnable or do via special sales (book clubs for instance get more of a discount but buy non-returnable and minimum order size 5000 or 10K books at a time) usuall…

You might want to check who you're replying to. cstross isn't as famous as Stephen King, but in science fiction he's one of the best-known contemporary authors. Personally, I'm in a very different sector of the book market than cstross, but what I know is entirely consistent with what he said.

My parents were in the book business as both retail and book distributors; my sister is a published author, my brother owns a 30-employee publishing company. I left the book industry for my first love, computers, a while back; but the numbers I threw out are still the norm for the industry.