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Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

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Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#31

Post by IgorPartola »

While I believe they saw these numbers, specifically that lowering the price from $15 to $10 lead to a 74% increase in purchases, I don't believe that this is a good general rule of thumb. Here's the problem: there are only so many potential ebook readers out in the world, and they only have so much time. This means there will be market saturation at some point, or at least market movement. This elasticity is there, for sure, but the relationship between price and purchases is not going to stay the same, especially as everyone follows this advice. Basically, everyone will price their books at $10 and the playing field will be level. Then the advice will be to price your book at $7. Then at $5. Then at $2. Then at $0.99 cents. This is the problem we currently see with Apple's App store and the Google Play Store: too many apps, all priced similarly. For most apps, and probably for most ebooks it would almost be better to go in the exact opposite direction: one sale at $1000 is better than 10 sales at $1.

Also, why would Amazon care so much about how others market their content, to the point of trying to interfere? If your content is not worth $15, then nobody will buy it. If you suck at marketing, nobody will know to buy your (possibly great content). Why does Amazon get its hands dirty instead of simply giving you analytics-backed suggestions? Oh, that's right, because controlling the publishers is more profitable for them, and using their market position as leverage against publishers is a great way to do so.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#32

Post by walterbell »

IgorPartola wrote: post #31

While I believe they saw these numbers, specifically that lowering the price from $15 to $10 lead to a 74% increase in purchases, I don't believe that this is a good general rule of thumb. Here's the problem: there are only so many potential ebook readers out in the world, and they only have so much time. This means there will be market saturation at some point, or at least market movement. This elasticity is there,…

Yes, many are forgetting that one of the primary purposes of markets is ... price discovery. Not price floor&ceiling fixing and restraining.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#33

Post by ghshephard »

shiven wrote: post #29
ghshephard wrote: post #26

While I buy into many of the arguments being made here, Some of these points don't make sense. For example, ". And that 74% increase in copies sold makes it much more likely that the title will make it onto the national bestseller lists. (Any author who's trying to get on one of the national bestseller lists should insist to their publisher that their e-book be priced at $9.99 or lower.)" Well, that's all well and go…

Amazon/Bezos are ruthless - they could not care at all what is fair I fail to see how the authors getting 35%, unhindered by the publisher's whims, can be unfair .

The point I'm trying to make is that Bezos is suggesting that number because it drives a wedge between the authors and the publishers. It's entire purpose is to weaken the solidarity (such as it is) that exists between hachette and their authors.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#34

Post by ghshephard »

tedks wrote: post #28
ghshephard wrote: post #26

While I buy into many of the arguments being made here, Some of these points don't make sense. For example, ". And that 74% increase in copies sold makes it much more likely that the title will make it onto the national bestseller lists. (Any author who's trying to get on one of the national bestseller lists should insist to their publisher that their e-book be priced at $9.99 or lower.)" Well, that's all well and go…

> Remember, Amazon/Bezos are ruthless - they could not care at all what is fair - but they are going to use every tool in their kit to win at this negotiation. Does any company of that size care what's "fair"?

Not everyone realizes this. It's important to be somewhat cynical when evaluating the negotiating communications being made by megacorporations.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#35

Post by larrys »

ghshephard wrote: post #33
shiven wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon/Bezos are ruthless - they could not care at all what is fair I fail to see how the authors getting 35%, unhindered by the publisher's whims, can be unfair .

The point I'm trying to make is that Bezos is suggesting that number because it drives a wedge between the authors and the publishers. It's entire purpose is to weaken the solidarity (such as it is) that exists between hachette and their authors.

What is interesting is that the technique (wedge) will work even if the authors are fully aware that that is what Amazon is doing.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#36

Post by jamesaguilar »

IgorPartola wrote: post #31

While I believe they saw these numbers, specifically that lowering the price from $15 to $10 lead to a 74% increase in purchases, I don't believe that this is a good general rule of thumb. Here's the problem: there are only so many potential ebook readers out in the world, and they only have so much time. This means there will be market saturation at some point, or at least market movement. This elasticity is there,…

> Also, why would Amazon care so much about how others market their content, to the point of trying to interfere?

They make $3 on every sale, so obviously it is in their interest to set the price to maximize revenue.

Your whole bit about "everyone doing it" and "race to the bottom" is an instance of the zero-sum fallacy.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#37

Post by larrys »

jonnathanson wrote: post #12
RexRollman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People do collect books.

Not only do people collect books, but in fact, more people collect books than read them. A lot more! I'd bet your average book consumer, with rows and rows of beautiful, trendy, or important books on his shelves, has read maybe 10% of those tomes. If that. 10% is probably a generous figure. Even true bibliophiles have read maybe 25-50% of their books. There is a long and well-known phenomenon in the publishing world,…

God know I still have all the O'Reilly books dating back to the 90's that I refuse to throw out. (They are in a back room not on a bookshelf although they were on a bookshelf at my old office mid 00).

But here's the thing. How do you do that with ebooks? No physical object to collect. Much different. Nothing to display.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#38

Post by jamesaguilar »

ghshephard wrote: post #26

While I buy into many of the arguments being made here, Some of these points don't make sense. For example, ". And that 74% increase in copies sold makes it much more likely that the title will make it onto the national bestseller lists. (Any author who's trying to get on one of the national bestseller lists should insist to their publisher that their e-book be priced at $9.99 or lower.)" Well, that's all well and go…

> was this ever established?

In what sense? In the sense that we know to a fairly high degree of certainty that it happened? Yes. In the sense that you would never lose a libel suit for saying that it happened? Also yes. In the sense that a final judgment was entered in a trial case to this effect? Only then would the answer be no.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#39

Post by isomorphic »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #24
isomorphic wrote: post #22

Amazon is using language like "e-book(s) sold" when the reality is that they mean "e-book license(s) sold." The difference may be subtle, but if an e-book comes with DRM, the buyer certainly does not "own" it. Amazon even makes that point themselves, as they promote e-books as having "no secondary market." This is an important point when you consider the vendor lock-in of the Kindle "ecosystem." Instead of "e-book,"…

DRM vs. no DRM Sale vs. licence These are two separate issues.

Theoretically yes, but technologically no. I can't "own" something with server-based DRM on it. DRM creates a right (or an ability) of revocation for the seller.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#40

Post by mintplant2 »

lesterbuck wrote: post #18
JohnTHaller wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The publisher can always sell directly as an unencrypted EPUB and MOBI (works on Kindle) to the consumer and set their own pricing and percentages.

Not exactly. Turns out you can sell via Amazon, or you can sell directly, but if you use the undocumented Amazon-only tool to construct your .mobi, you can't sell that directly. And Amazon is now blocking the output of many/all other ebook construction software so you can't use Send to Kindle or email. USB is the only option to load a book. http://devblog.avdi.org/2014/04/02/why-does-amazon-hate-eboo...

Just yesterday I used http://epub2mobi.com/ to convert a public domain ePub file to MOBI, then sent that to my Kindle's email address. It was delivered wirelessly to my Kindle. Are you sure this hasn't changed? Or is epub2mobi doing something to circumvent this?
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