So I was really looking forward to reading A Memory of Light which is the 14th and final book in the Wheel of Time series. The dead tree edition was made available for sale on the 8th of January but the e-book version will not be released until April. I typically don’t purchase dead tree edition of books these days favoring e-books because I don’t want to lug around a bunch of books next time I move. As I was really looking forward to reading this book (stop laughing I’ve got nearly 25 years invested in this stupid series) I’m a bit disappointed that I have to wait an additional three months.
I’m sure the publisher has some reason to delay the release of the e-book version. Does anyone here know why? I was willing to spend $20 or more to get an e-book version on the 8th but now I’m not planning on purchasing the book at all. If I have to wait a year or more to get a copy at the library that’s what I will do.
Do you have a cite that the hardback version is more profitable? I’m sceptical, and the fact that the hardback version costs the consumer more doesn’t really prove anything either way.
I suspect its either an anti-piracy measure, or a result of some sort of deal with brick-and-motor book-stores.
I’m skeptical that this is the reason. You can pick up the book for $20 from Amazon and $20.39 from Barnes & Noble. I’m not sure how charging the same for an e-book version would be less profitable.
The list price of the hardback is $35, with the wholesale price probably about half that (Amazon choosing to discount it heavily and minimize their profit is their decision, I checked and my local independent brick & mortar store is selling it for full price.)
The Kindle edition of the previous WOT book sells for $9.99, the new one probably will sell for either $9.99 or $12.99…after whatever Amazon’s cut is the publisher clearly ends up making less than on the hardcover.
I still don’t think that’s obvious. A copy of the hardcover is going to have a marginal cost per-copy to the publisher to pay for materials, printing, etc. For the ebook, there aren’t really any equivalent cost. So even if the wholesale price of the hardcopy is higher, its not necessarily true that the publisher would see more profit per-hardcopy sold. Indeed, I’d be rather surprised if that were the case.
Okay, I realize the MSRP is $35 but what difference does that make? I’m assuming retailers selling it for approximately $20 are not doing so at a loss. So assuming the e-book version could be had for $20, how would this make the book less profitable for publishers?
I’m sure there’s some rationale behind delaying the e-book version but I just don’t know what it is.
Edit: I’ll just flat out come and say it. I don’t understand how e-books are handled by publishers. I know that the government threatened several publishers because they colluded to keep prices artificially high, but that’s about it. I don’t understand why some e-books cost more than the paperback version, I don’t know why they want to delay the date an e-book goes up for sale and I’m sure there are a lot of others things I just don’t understand.
The cost of printing and materials is only a small percentage of the cover price. Considering a publisher might get $12 for a hardcover and only $5 from an e-book, the savings isn’t enough.
Do you have a cite that those numbers are typical?
I don’t really see why a publisher would sell ebooks at such a heavy discount like that. Why not just use the same price as for hardcopy, minus the cost of printing/materials/shipping/etc.
In the case of the wheel of time specifically, I have read that the original author’s widow is against ebooks at all, and the delay is a concession to her. Regardless, I think at this point a non-simultaneous release just increases piracy. While there is no official ebook out yet, there are epub versions of it in existence already and it just came out in hardcover yesterday.
Here’s a postdiscussing the cost of printing a book. A hardcover is listed at $2.50. The numbers don’t include shipping or warehousing, which might add another 50 cents a copy. A book like the Wheel of Time is going to cost more because it’s longer, but not that much more.
They sell them at a discount because Amazon.com demanded that their ebooks be priced at $9.99. Amazon set the price with no regard to the publishers’ expenses: you sell at $9.99 or you don’t sell at all.
This wasn’t too bad because up to a couple of years ago, publishers were not seeing a cannibalization of their books: ebook sales were in addition to paper book sales. If this is changing, though, it’s going to squeeze publishers (especially since the Commerce Department was shortsighted enough to jump on Amazon’s side). Amazon is becoming a classic robber baron monopoly: putting its competitors out of business (they’re already publishing, and are beginning to squeeze publishers further).
In the short term, this means cheap ebooks. In the long term, it means fewer books and fewer authors being able to make any money for their work and, basically Amazon.com being the only game in town.
The difference it makes is the publisher gets 50% of that $35 price ($17.50, even if Amazon sells it for only $20), while they will get 70% of the $10-$13 the Kindle book will sell for ($7.00-$9.10).
Amazon sold books at a loss, so that they could drive Kindle sales. They bought the rights for around $13, sold for $9.99. Bezos was willing to lose money to make the Kindle the top platform.
It seems like this kind of mentality will cause someone to make their own bootleg ebook of it and put it up on the web free. Illegal, but possible and likely.
Remember, someone took a still photo of every single page of Harry Potter 7, so people are willing to scan in texts and so forth.
If they released the Ebook on Day 1, people would be way more likely to just buy the thing.
For the record, I haven’t read the series, so this doesn’t affect me and I won’t be bootlegging it.