On One Price Not Fitting All

April 7th, 2009 · No Comments
by Kassia Krozser

At The Daily Beast, Peter Osnos considers various aspects of the future of digital books, leading to this conclusion (which might, uh, sound familiar):

Depending on who they are, consumers, authors, publishers, and booksellers all are focused on the benefits of the lowest price or the greatest revenue return, a balance of interests that can never satisfy everyone. The notion that because e-books do not have to be “manufactured” they can be cheaper has some validity, but there is already a reasonable pricing menu for books, the difference between hardcovers and paperbacks. Downloaded audiobooks also can be cheaper than those that need to be to be packaged and shipped. Applying the movie model to books again, each system of delivery should have its own pricing formula, giving consumers the final choice of what they want.

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