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I'm reading other people's perspectives on this, and it isn't really altering what I'm thinking, but it is helping clear and define my thoughts.
An eBook is as much an end-product as a paper book. It costs nearly as much to produce and all the arguments that eBooks must cost substantially less and print books must cost more because OMG! there's paper [2] and ink[3] and printing presses [4] and warehousing [5] and shipping [6] don't realize that that portion of the book process is 10% or less of the total cost of a book [1] - $2.50 on a quality $25.00 hardback. So, by that reasoning, what these people are saying is that the price of an eBook should be 10% less than a print copy.
What, eBooks should cost $22.50! Outrage! Horror! BOYCOTT THE AUTHOR!
The other argument for ebooks being cheaper is that 50% of the paper books are returned.
I worked for a major book chain and we returned maybe 20-25% of the books we ordered, and since I am still an avid reader and book-buyer and have friends in the bookselling business, a good bookstore manager/buyer will keep the percentage of returns as low as possible. It's good business for the store to have fewer returns. I don't have hard facts and I'm not going to go looking for them right now, but I'm going to go with the 25% figure. What most readers don't understand is that publishers have priced this out incrementally so that returns are a small factor in the price of each book - and I don't think this cost will go away just because the book is digital. Returns will continue to happen because there will be download glitches, damaged files, and so on. The difference is that the returns will mostly be coming from the end buyer and not the bookseller. That cost may be less, it may actually jump up and be more. Only time will tell us this for sure.
Now, let's look at the argument about DRM and the ability to share books, like BookCrossings.
Let's get to the book sharing thing first. Just how do y'all plan to do BookCrossings with a digital file? Put it on a flash drive and set it on a bus bench? I mean, get real, people! That just flat out isn't going to happen. Not ever. As for other methods of sharing? Those might be possible but we aren't there yet.
See, I know computer programmers (part of my geeky appeal, I suppose - I'm not a programmer, but, like authors and editors, I feed them - they have an overwhleming love for my Billy Goat cookies and my 30 pound lasagna). One of the things they keep talking about is building programs that allow digital files to be shared via the public library or NetFlix View-on-Demand. Movies are there. Books aren't there yet. Music isn't even there yet - libraries don't lend MP3s the way they lend cassettes and CDs. But the push is to get there and I'm pretty sure that will happen in my lifetime, even as old as I am.
See, one of the problems with sharing an ebook is the equipment. Not everyone has an eReader, not everyone can comfortably read a novel on a computer screen, not everyone can read a novel on a cell phone. Sharing ebooks is really difficult even under the best of circumstances and is perforce limited by equipment. I know this seems appalling to the techie geeks out there who have every single gadget and gizmo they can get their hands on, but the vast majority of Americans don't have eReaders. There's still a large contingent of people who don't even have cell phones (either because there's no coverage where they live or because they can't afford one). Most libraries don't lend equipment. I know some do, but it's not universal. Most libraries prefer the borrower to use the equipment on site, like their computers.
There's also the problem of computer hackers and book pirates.
A book hacked and pirated across the internet before its release date (it's happened, in fact, it's happening to me right now, a book I have coming out was hacked and is being sold by a pirate and his sales will seriously eat my lunch both in legal fees and my own legal sales) is a nasty thing to authors. It damages their income. DRM is awful, but it slows this sort of damage down. Right now, I think authors and publishers and proprietary booksellers like Amazon are looking at DRM as a type of copyright protection. I know piracy is problem. It will probably always be a problem. I don't think DRM is the answer.
I know beyond doubt that I resent Amazon's twitchiness in taking away something someone has already purchased, just reaching into their files and deleting it. They should not have the ability or the right to do that. Once a customer buys something, that copy belongs to them. Amazon does not retain ownership and should not retain control of a copy of an ebook they sell in the same way they do not retain ownership or control of a music download they sell. Customers may not have the legal right to make copies of book files in the same way they don't have a legal right to make copies of movies they buy, but they do own the copy they bought. If sharing it means making copies, I can see how that would be a problem. If sharing it means they lose access to it while they lend it to someone else, just as they would lose access to a print copy of a book they lend, then I'm OK with that. I'm not geeky enough to know how to let that happen, but if anyone can figure that out I say go for it. I don't think publishers would mind because they don't mind print books being shared that way and it would be the same thing to them.
In fact, if that could be done, I think publishers would love it because that means they could sell copies to libraries for libraries to lend out. Libraries would love it, too. They could offer more books in less space and do it on line with "read on demand" lending. Publishers and authors would really get behind this. If there are any programmers that know how to make this happen, you would be the darling of the industry.
What will probably not happen is BookCrossings for eBooks. I just fail to see how that would be possible. If anyone knows how that could be done without, you know, eReaders, I'd like to hear it.
I do, however, see a possibility for used ebook stores. EBooks still take up space. I'm sure that like print books, eBooks would eventually go "out of print" - the publisher would no longer be allowing digital file copies to be made from their master file or make fresh master files when theirs degrades from use (it happens) and the primary master file would revert back to the author (it's that whole copyright thing that readers either don't understand or don't care about). We all know that copies of copies degrade, even digital ones, over time. This means that if someone has a popular eBook that has gone "out of print ", they could sell it to a used book store, who could then sell it to readers. Or - perhaps the format changed, and the ebook file is no longer readable on current eReader equipment, like old computer programs on the 5 ΒΌ disks. There's still a market for those old computer programs; there'd be a market for old ebook files. People are weird that way.
Or there would be, if it weren't for companies like Amazon thinking they still own something after they sold it and will snatch it back without warning.
What boggles me is all the people who think ebooks are by-products, and assume ebooks will always be by-products, and therefore feel that all the expenses in creating a book flat out don't apply to ebooks.
Got news for all y'all - we need to think of ebooks as the final product in the book publishing process. As long as we think of ebooks as just a by-product, an "extra", we will never resolve the issues around them, like DRM and share-ability and "used" files, and library lendability.
It does not matter what is CURRENTLY being sold or how ebooks arecurrently being handled - we already all know that isn't working. Any arguments that keep ebooks locked into how they are handled now (ie - "but they're licensed", "we can't share them", "they're by-products") are not constructive and I percieve them as whining. I hate whining. If you have solutions or can offer some new insights or information, I will be pleased as punch (and if you've ever had my punch, that's pretty pleased). I am trying to get a grip on the issue and I don't want that kind of obstructionism blocking and distracting me. If you're whining here, I am going to ignore you and hope you don't decide to be offended. This applies to other posts, too, not just this one. My kids will tell you how much I hate and despise whininess, but that's another topic. Now, back on topic:
When ebooks are the end of the publishing process - and paper books are the quaint and charming by-product - we will get the pricing right. This is a process I think many publishers are coming to realize is the future of books. It may be why they are agitiating for a pricing structure change - so they can afford to make those changes. There will always be those who want print copies, some will want the fine, leather bound volumes that match and look good in their Victorian reproduction home library (they must all look good with this shade of red!), others want a tangible physical product they can feel in their hands and are soothed by the physical act of turning paper pages, but I believe ebooks will replace paper books the way graphic programs are replacing a lot of art- a program on a device that some people prefer to have in hard copy. An ebook will be a program on a device that some people will prefer to have in hard copy.
That means that the price of an ebook must be factored according to all the expenses involved in producing a book.
The process of producing a book up to the moment it is converted to digital or print is identical. And after that point, the difference is not so great as many people seem to think it is. We have been undervaluing ebooks because we haven't understood the true cost. Acquisitions (what the publisher eventually pays the author), editing, copyediting, design, formatting, graphics, proofreading, salaries, building overheads, equipment, those are costs that don't go away just because the book is digital. When the ebook is seen as the final prodcut, the formatting, typos, readability, etc. will improve because the money to do those things will be there from the sales of the book. As long as people keep insisting that ebooks are mere by-products of the publishing process the problems with them won't go away. One reason they need to be priced according to cost is so the money will be there to make those improvements and the early adopters are always the ones who bear the brunt of that cost.
I'm going to ponder this some more, and leave you with this thought:
We need to stop fixating on "paper" or "digital" and think of it as "book".
[1] Larger publishing houses spend less on the paper costs because of bulk quantities, smaller and indie presses will spend more because they don't have the purchasing power, or experience in moving a book from raw content to finished product but the expense stays around the 10% mark.
[2] Instead of paper, we have digital files, which must be created and displayed on plastic devices - plastic comes from oil which we all know is terribly expensive - the price is born more by the consumer than the publisher, but it's still there. Plus, digital files degrade and need to be re-mastered. That's an expense for both the publisher (who should be the only authorised source for the master file and for making and delivering files to booksellers - booksellers shouldn't get a master file from which they can then run as many copies as they want. Like print books or movies, they only get so many and when they sell out, they order more. It keeps the quality up and keeps the publisher accountable, not the bookseller.
[3] I should have lumped ink with paper, so consider it done.
[4] And instead of printing presses, they'll use mainframe computers and the techs to maintain them and the people to oversee the final product to make sure it doesn't get mangled in the programming. We can probably add the cost of the broadband here, not the actual broadband itself, but the equipment to connect the mainframes to the internet to share the files - and don't forget, because some people have no lives, these computers also need state-of-the-art antivirus and anti-hacking protection and safeguards against DOS attacks - and the people to maintain those. Expense is still there, just in a different form.
[5] Few publishing houses keep huge inventories of print books anymore and haven't for more than a decade because they get very heavily taxed on it. Print runs are smaller and books go out of print much faster as a result. Warehousing is the tiniest part of the expense of publishing anymore. That expense is now taken by computers which store the digital files of the books, and yes, memory costs in computers. Back-ups are needed, and anti-hacking and anti-virus programs and people to supervise them, so actually, I think right now the cost of a paper warehouse is about the same asa digital warehouse.
[6] Shipping is a lot more than postage and packaging. It also includes people to oversee that the right product is shipped to the right person, to handle returns, and to deal with damaged goods. It includes the cost of broadband and the cost of the equipment to send it via the internet. That's the "and handling" part of "shipping and handling". The postage part is negligible compared to the handling part, and that part still exists for digital ebooks. It's just in a less visible form.