Shatzkin on eBook pricing

Shatzkin commenting on Cader commenting on The New York Times. (phew!) A recent piece in The Times picked talked about eBook pricing. Michael Cader analyzed some of the comments in a piece for Publisher's Lunch (most content behind a pay wall). Shatzkin expands upon it, and does a great job.

Cader: $9.99 never was the top e-book price; people pay more than that every day.

I have been told directly by a responsible person at Amazon that 4% of the titles they sell are deep-discounted to $9.99 and those represent 25% of the total sales. Of the other 75% of the sales, many (most) are less than $9.99 without necessarily deep-discounting, according to Cader, 30% are more. I have personally bought many Kindle books for more than $9.99 and some for more than $14.99.

Cader: The implicit, false promise of cheap e-books was made by the people who profit, at very nice margins, from selling the devices, not from publishers.

Shatzkin pretty much agrees. He does note that Kobo and B&N before the nook didn't find this true - but were merely trying to match prices with Amazon, who established the $9.99 point without regard to book sales being profitable. He then goes on to state:

The two companies most likely to save publishers from an Amazon stranglehold on their future general readership, Apple and Google, would also place “margin from ebook sales” very low on their list of objectives for participation in the ebook supply chain.

He's exactly right, although I would believe Google taking a loss to establish a presence - I don't see this as being so with Apple. They may not look to make a lot of money, but they won't want to lose money either. It's long been known that the goal of the iTunes Music Store was to be "about break even" to foster iPod sales.

Cader: Brand-new ebooks sold at $9.99 are generally sold at a loss by the retailer.

Shatzkin notes that Publishers are taking steps to fix this, and asks whose side we, the consumer, are on? That's a fascinating question, since the answer seems to vary amongst consumers.

Shatzkin has some fascinating insight, and apparently so did Cader whose writing Shatzkin liberally quotes. A highly recommended read.