Why is iBooks so dear

pmct

I can't understand why electronic versions of books are dearer than printed ones two examples of this are the new Bruce Springsteen bio. It is €16.99 on ibooks and on amazon it is €10.23. The new John Grisham book is €13.99 on iBooks and amazon it is €10.23. Surely electronic versions should be cheaper no printing transport etc. what are your thoughts

Creamy Goodness

How are you converting the amazon prices? Are you just converting the sterling price?

There's a few things you may not have taken into account:

Uk don't have vat on their books, Irish stores do so amazon add 23% vat at checkout. iBooks has this in the display price.

Using xe or other online currency conversions don't reflect actual banking currency rates so there can be fluctuations.

Publishers set the price on iBooks knowing that apple take a 30% cut on all sales for hosting and content delivery so the publishers mark up accordingly.

pmct

I use a website called shopireland that shows the price in euros and although I didn't know about the difference in vat I still thing electronic versions should be cheaper

Eire Go Brach

Because Apple and other publishers have been price fixing

OU812

While it's true that the print cost & transport cost are not there in e publishing, every other cost is.

Publisher's make about 10% profit out of the book cost in the first year, this rises each year until about year five when they're making about 50%. But that's assuming a popular book that will run & run. For example, 50 shades is the biggest (& fastest) selling book this year. It's a phenomena. They've merchandised the **** out of it because after next year it'll be old. There'll be something else to take it's place.

However the likes of Harry Potter, will still be popular in twenty years time. Not *as* popular, but will still sell several tens of thousands of copies a year.

Then you have every other book published that dies on it's feet. They all have the same costs too with very little comeback. in fact, if they go to be pulped, that's extra cost on the publisher.

Digital publishing props up the profit margin, allowing publishers to take a risk on unknown quantities which might end up being pulped.

aphex™

I've seen some reports that amazon are losing money on ebooks

pmct

Is there anywhere that I can get books for the ipad cheaper

boreder

pmct wrote: »

Is there anywhere that I can get books for the ipad cheaper

Download the kindle app and buy them Amazon if they're cheaper.

pmct

I downloaded it when I tried to download a sample to try it it says I can't because I am in the republic is there away around it

Piliger

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Publishers set the price on iBooks knowing that apple take a 30% cut on all sales for hosting and content delivery so the publishers mark up accordingly.

Publishers have always paid distributors/retailers for sticking their titles and they also pay Amazon the same.

Sulla Felix

pmct wrote: »

I downloaded it when I tried to download a sample to try it it says I can't because I am in the republic is there away around it

Should be able to link the app to an amazon.com account. Set up the account from your desktop first and then log in via the app. Worked for me.

Piliger

pmct wrote: »

I can't understand why electronic versions of books are dearer than printed ones two examples of this are the new Bruce Springsteen bio. It is €16.99 on ibooks and on amazon it is €10.23. The new John Grisham book is €13.99 on iBooks and amazon it is €10.23. Surely electronic versions should be cheaper no printing transport etc. what are your thoughts

This is not an Apple issue, not even an Amazon issue, and has been a major controversy for a few years now.

Publishers make huge profits on their eBook versions compared with their paper versions and are using this super profit to bolster their flagging profits in recent years.
With their paper versions they have to pay the print and paper costs, the distribution and retailer margin costs. With the eBooks they only have to pay the 30% to the online seller such as Apple or Amazon.

You need to do some reading on this subject and start to move away from the 'best seller' con trick that the major publishers are pulling over people heads.

Start reading independent publishers and self published titles, something that is sweeping across the whole publishing world. Check out www.smashwords.com for example.

Try to lose the idea that being on best selling lists and being promoted by the big publishers means any kind of quality. There are brilliant reads from other sources and they are much much cheaper.

Also keep in mind how Amazon and Apple are forced to DRM lock their titles, so download "Calibre" and use it to manage your eBooks and to strip DRM so that you have full control over the titles you buy.

BostonB

Thanks for the link. I'll have to check that out.