There are some interesting arguments about lowering the costs of eBooks. In a post by Chris Dannen, he explains the downward pressure on eBooks prices to the changes that have happened in the movie and music industry. I disagree with the notion that a book is like a song or album and he’s missing the whole section of book publishing that is not for entertainment. This article certainly brings to light a lot of the challenges that are facing book publishers today in how they produce, market and sell their books. From the power struggle with Amazon to the hope for the promise land with Apple, the industry is certainly in the midst of a lot of change. But, change isn’t something this industry has had to do much over history and that adds an interesting dynamic because the executive management at publishers have seen how this movie ends if they do sit back and do nothing, yet the answer on what to do isn’t easily apparent.
What publishers can do is look internally and find areas in their organization where things can be done differently. Chris Dannen points out in his article something that represents the heart of problem that we here at North Plains focus our solutions on for book publishers. Embracing new ways to produce and market content cheaper, better, and faster is what publishers should embrace.
Television and publishing companies are terrified of downward pressure in the prices of e-books and digital TV shows. Whether it’s $1 shows on the iPad or $9.99 books on Amazon, big media are worried that consumers will come to believe that, while media production and distribution prices have dropped, the retail price of media content hasn’t.
Not everyone will admit this disparity actually exists. Columnists like Gordon Haff at our sister site CNET have argued that e-books are actually no cheaper to produce than hardback books. And that’s true — if the book publishers refuse to update their operating structure to reflect the new economics of the Web. One example: nearly 10% of the overhead Haff cites is “marketing.” Having watched the traditional book marketing machine at work, I know that most of this is wasted on ineffectual, immeasurable methods: newspaper ads, mass-mailings to reviewers, and so on. Media companies need to cut the fat.
http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005476/the-argument-for-dirt-cheap-e-books/