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RE: audience at this blog – one of the biggest attractions to me of this blog and Smart Bitches is that you get to hear readers and authors having opinions on stuff to do with all kinds of books, not just their own promo.

I thought this was a lovely mixture… maybe the authors are just more articulate and we readers often just consume?

My two cents ^^

Book pirating is low right now.

I certainly agree that illegal distribution of existing digital books is low.

However, the current rate of pirated books (OCR-scanned print books that aren’t yet available digitally) is clearly on a rise. And rapidly.

From October 2009 to January 2010, it’s assured that there’s about 60% rise from Oct 2007 to January 2008. The figures aren’t reliable, though, as gathering data is still inconsistent (different methods), but regardless, no matter how many turns we make on this: there is a definite rise.

There’s a structure emerging among book scan teams, too – they are more organised and systematic now. Very similar to music and film teams. Their focus is largely on – as always – current editions of university textbooks and out-of-print books (fiction and non-fiction).

With this in mind, authors and publishers ARE having ‘lost sales’ — by not having their backlists and current releases digitally available, and at reasonable prices.

IMO, publishers should seriously consider right-clearing, digitalising and selling their catalogues ASAP. Preferably before book pirates make them available online, thus devaluing those out-of-print books.

Sorry for derailing this thread as it shouldn’t be about piracy. Just wanted to back Ridley up on this.

To me, that makes it more likely that they’d be willing to experiment with lowering prices below the $9.99 price point–if they’re earning $5.60 on an $8 book now, when before they’d have had to list that book at over $11 to earn the same $5.60.

You’ve clearly misunderstood what I was saying because what you’ve written is my whole point.

Under the old retail system where Amazon paid McMillan 50% of list price, why would McMillan lower list price to $9.99, and be paid 50% of $9.99 ($5), when they could be paid that same percentage of a $14 list price ($7) and have Amazon swallow the loss and sell the book for $9.99 anyway? That system was a disincentive to McMillan lowering list prices, because they’d only lower their profits and increase Amazon’s.

The newer system is more flexible. It may not provide McMillan an incentive to lower prices, but at least it doesn’t provide a disincentive.

Amazon pays Macmillan off the list price not what Amazon charges the customer. It is clear in the letter that Macmillan paid to be published that under the old system, it would be making more money because Amazon absorbed the loss.

Please, please, please, stop promulgating this untrue information, at least here.

Wickedly Ever After – Michelle Marcos
- mmbp list $6.99 / ebook list $14.00

Under the previous system, lowering list price from $14 (effectively $9.99) to $6.99 or $7.99 would have reduced McMillan’s cut from $7 to $3.50 or $4.

Customers would see only a $2 or $3 reduction in price, but McMillan would lose $3 or $3.50 on each sale.

Lowering the list price to $9.99 would reduce McMillan’s cut from $7 to $5–and consumers would see no effective reduction in price because Amazon was selling the book for $9.99 anyway. Why would McMillan lower list price from $14 to $9.99 when the one taking the hardest hit is McMillan and consumers would see no benefit at all?

Under the new system, they could net $7 on a $9.99 list price, and almost $5 on $6.99. I think it’s much more likely we’ll see lower list prices under the new system than the old. It might take a while for McMillan to wake up to the fact that consumers will buy at $8 what they wouldn’t at $15, and if they don’t, well, that’s their loss. But you can’t expect them to lower prices when it means cutting their profits in half–especially when Amazon was all too willing to swallow the loss for them.

People pirate for the same reason people with thousands of dollars shoplift shoelaces and lipsticks: Because they can and there's little likelihood of being caught.:

This is off topic too but my thoughts on that have always been that the consequences of book pirating are almost, or maybe completely, nil.

Like the person with a great deal of money who steals small priced items, the cost if caught pirating a book is relatively small and the social consequences even less since someone -or many someones- will think the thief should be defended.

Until something changes that fact the pirates will continue on and the only real policing will be done by the authors.

I get what you’re saying now. But I do think the issue is less about the advance-paying model, and more about the SUPER-advance model. Would that be fair to say?

One of the reasons that publishers are beginning to window ebook releases is to force readers to buy the paper. Instead of windowing, publishers are saying, “we’ll charge you more for ebooks” in hopes that they buy more hardcovers.

It’s not an easy issue. There are other things like driving consumer expectation, creating “value” for an ebook, and so forth that is all coming into play here.

I don’t have animosity toward authors but I do have strong opinions. If my strong opinions on a topic have made you feel as if I have animosity toward you or any specific author, I apologize for that.

You can either read my posts, or not, that’s your call. And you’ll note, I didn’t say anything to Jane until she addressed ME. And btw, she did not apologize, nor do I want or expect an apology. She said what she felt, and I did the same. Presumably as adults we can do that without you trying to impose kindergarten rules.

Yes, my sleepiness made me think of it as a big picture question… how do advances make e-book prices go up overall… I admit I was thinking of the issue of e-books being priced HIGHER than their paperback versions. Admittedly, as a reader, I have no problem with an e-book at $14.99 when the hardcover is $24.99. So is the upset at pricing just the entire idea of hardcover releases at all?

So let me ask this… still sleepy though. Just warning you. Amazon is selling books for $9.99 at a loss. What happens long-term? Presumably they plan to make a shitload of money at some point. *g*

And no, I don’t think that as readers our whole goal should be to subsidize the traditional hardcover print but I understand where you are coming from even if I don’t agree with it.

I’m not sure what you mean by “pick your battles carefully”. I love books. I do. But I’m not going to subsidize the hardcover print business model with my money. I’ll just have to find other means of entertaining myself.

I clicked on this thread to read about Amazon, Macmillan and publishing, not to read about some author turning the thread around to her and her feelings.

I’m not policing it, I’m telling you you’ve moved on to annoying.

You stated your case, Jane apologized, let it go or move elsewhere.