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Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

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Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#2
For every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000.

That seems like a hard won data point, I'm surprised they threw it out to the public domain. It makes intuitive sense to me though. I buy a lot of ebooks and when they're really cheap I just buy them immediately rather than track them somewhere to go and purchase when I have time to read them later. My kindle has probably a half dozen books to read on it at the moment, and I imagine if they were $20-30 each I wouldn't be that flippant about it.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#5
post #4

We believe 35% should go to the author, 35% to the publisher and 30% to Amazon. What do publishers even do with regards to e-book distribution? Are they going the way of the record label company?

The publishers and record labels are doing the same thing they were before - curation and editing. The book printers & CD burners are out of the mix, but they were never that expensive anyway. There are still fixed costs associated with a book (editor) or an album (studio time), not to mention the marketing costs.

Are they worth 35% of the profit? I don't think so. But probably more than 0%. I personally think it should be 70% author, 20% publisher, 10% Amazon.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#6
post #4

We believe 35% should go to the author, 35% to the publisher and 30% to Amazon. What do publishers even do with regards to e-book distribution? Are they going the way of the record label company?

The publishers and record labels are doing the same thing they were before - curation and editing. The book printers & CD burners are out of the mix, but they were never that expensive anyway. There are still fixed costs associated with a book (editor) or an album (studio time), not to mention the marketing costs. Are they worth 35% of the profit? I don't think so. But probably more than 0%. I personally think it sho…

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.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#7
post #4

We believe 35% should go to the author, 35% to the publisher and 30% to Amazon. What do publishers even do with regards to e-book distribution? Are they going the way of the record label company?

The publishers and record labels are doing the same thing they were before - curation and editing. The book printers & CD burners are out of the mix, but they were never that expensive anyway. There are still fixed costs associated with a book (editor) or an album (studio time), not to mention the marketing costs. Are they worth 35% of the profit? I don't think so. But probably more than 0%. I personally think it sho…

10% is far too little. Amazon is R&D'ing and manufacturing tablet/e-reader devices, handling payment/currency, and all the dirty work necessary to get the device in the hands of the customer in the first place.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#8
Books aren't video games. People don't collect them. I don't consider a game I don't finish to be a failure, a waste of my time. I do so a book.

Despite Amazon's talking points, they are relatively price inelastic. Perhaps, right now, they aren't, since people are still dealing with market novelty, but over the long term, time is a bigger sink than money, when it comes to books.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#9

Books aren't video games. People don't collect them. I don't consider a game I don't finish to be a failure, a waste of my time. I do so a book. Despite Amazon's talking points, they are relatively price inelastic. Perhaps, right now, they aren't, since people are still dealing with market novelty, but over the long term, time is a bigger sink than money, when it comes to books.

> Despite Amazon's talking points, they are relatively price inelastic.

I'd be surprised if your data was better than Amazon's.

Re: Amazon/Hachette Business Interruption

#10

Books aren't video games. People don't collect them. I don't consider a game I don't finish to be a failure, a waste of my time. I do so a book. Despite Amazon's talking points, they are relatively price inelastic. Perhaps, right now, they aren't, since people are still dealing with market novelty, but over the long term, time is a bigger sink than money, when it comes to books.

Well, this was a horrible way to discover that I'm not a people.

If I stop collecting books, can I become a people? Is there like a specific process or licensing body?

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