HarperCollins is run by a bunch of rude people

[destrekor]

Neal Stephenson's Seveneves costs $16.99 for the eBook format. Everywhere.

The Hardcover format is priced at roughly $22 at both Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

Granted, MSRP for the Hardcover is $35. You can still get it for $29.75 @ harpercollins.com. But that proves the point even more: sure, it is appropriately given a cheaper MSRP because of the removal of the physical production and delivery structure, but only in the eBook format is the MSRP seemingly enforced. Whereas in every other category of consumer goods, the MSRP is only a suggestion and many retailers undercut that price.

But not for eBooks from HarperCollins. A hard price, no reseller can dare charge what they want. That makes sense right? Of course it does.

Amazon was right to have beef with HarperCollins. I'm contemplating buying the physical book just to maintain a physical book shelf and at least get some extra product for a reasonable cost. $17 for an eBook is not reasonable, sorry. But I will buy almost surely buy this book as opposed to grabbing it from the library, because even though Stephenson can annoy me with his style, I generally appreciate his approach to works like Cryptonomicon, Anathem, and Reamde. All his fans foam at the mouth over Snow Crash, but while that was a fun ride, it did not stand out as a work of art in my opinion. Cryptonomicon and Anathem did, however, and Reamde was close and very enjoyable. Reamde got going much quicker whereas Anathem took a long time to build up, but Anathem seemed to really resonate that much more.

 

[chimaxi83]

 

[chimaxi83]

 

[chimaxi83]

 

[chimaxi83]

 

[Maximilian]

Enjoy your book OP. Heres the best song ever to listen to while you read:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSVDcw6iW8

 

[sdifox]

Don't like? Don't buy!

 

[destrekor]

Don't like? Don't buy!

I know. But I like the author and like to support the authors I like; I wish I could do so, and get a book, while not supporting the antics of the publishers.

 

[lxskllr]

I know. But I like the author and like to support the authors I like; I wish I could do so, and get a book, while not supporting the antics of the publishers.

Find his address, and send cash.

 

[blackdogdeek]

I don't find them rude; just greedy.

 

[destrekor]

I don't find them rude; just greedy.

I called them assholes but that doesn't fly in thread titles, so I adjusted

 

[CPA]

I don't find them rude; just greedy.

Greedy because they want a certain price for their book? What price would not be considered greedy?

 

[waffleironhead]

I'm not sure I understand your complaint.

 

[cabri]

I'm not sure I understand your complaint.

Complaining that the e-book format price is not competitive between vendors,

 

[Mike64]

I'm contemplating buying the physical book just to maintain a physical book shelf and at least get some extra product for a reasonable cost. $17 for an eBook is not reasonable, sorry. But I will buy almost surely buy this book as opposed to grabbing it from the library

This annoys the ever loving hell out of me. But if you insist on buying, what're you going to do? Personally, I've never bought a current-release ebook because of this sort of pricing and unless things change drastically, I doubt I ever will. (I have bought a few well-reformatted public domain ebooks for cheap.) I either buy the physical book, or even better, borrow it from my local libraries' extensive ebook collections. I like ebooks for their portability, but am certainly not wedded to the concept enough to pay (what I consider) excessive prices for them.

 

[SearchMaster]

You're not paying for bits and bytes, you're paying for the large advance to the author (7 figures I assume), paying to keep the lights on at Harper Collins, paying Apple/Google/Amazon/whoever to run the servers that deliver the content, etc.

But you know all this. The law of supply and demand is a law, not just a suggestion.

If you want to read the book but send a message, get it from the library.

 

[Newell Steamer]

I am enraged because I don't know why I should be enraged over this.

 

[blackdogdeek]

Greedy because they want a certain price for their book? What price would not be considered greedy?

Free. But, I don't fault them for being greedy. On the contrary, it's in their best interests to get as much money from us as the market will allow. And I want them to survive in order to continue to provide the services they do.

 

[destrekor]

You're not paying for bits and bytes, you're paying for the large advance to the author (7 figures I assume), paying to keep the lights on at Harper Collins, paying Apple/Google/Amazon/whoever to run the servers that deliver the content, etc.

But you know all this. The law of supply and demand is a law, not just a suggestion.

If you want to read the book but send a message, get it from the library.

Oh I know why there is a fair price for an eBook, and where the money goes (very little to the author if you ignore the advance), but all of those same factors are in the price for a physical paper book as well. So the comparison is, how much does it cost to produce and distribute a digital file compared to a hefty physical book, especially a 900+ page hardcover book. Distribution of physical books has a significant cost that cannot be ignored, and is why fair eBook pricing has historically been much less than what some publishers are pushing for these days. They see it as a chance to actually make more revenue because they can still provide a "discount", but after correcting for the different distribution costs, they almost surely come out further ahead.


For those who don't understand the complaint, know that it is partly in jest, but I still don't like this situation. Also, the main complain is that unlike in any other competitive marketplace where the same product can be found for different prices, the eBook in this case has the same exact price, not discounted a single penny by any store. That $35 hard cover (this is the case for all books) is often found for far less, closer to $20. But that $17 eBook? It is $17 everywhere, no discount permitted, stores can't decide they want to accept less revenue by offering a sale.

How can a publisher have that kind of control? This is something I know understand why Amazon got into such a pissing contest with HarperCollins, to have this level of control of your distribution and endpoint sales, I thought all the anti-collusion judgments were going to make this go away. Apparently it just pissed off the snake that much more. :\

 

[twinrider1]

 

[destrekor]

And of course you can't get a discounted eBook if you buy the physical book. Which I still find to be the most aggravating part of the current digital publishing market.

I'd love to buy the physical book, as while I am building an eBook library I do prefer the feel of a whole book in my hands and actually turning pages (I feel like I read and comprehend faster if it is physical print material). But it would be outstanding if I could travel lightly and utilize my Kindle to continue reading elsewhere, or would like to read in bed without a light on (Paperwhite).

Harper is definitely one of the publishers who refuses to participate in Amazon's Matchbook program. I'd pay $3 for the eBook on top of the physical book. I might just acquire the eBook while buying the physical book - I'm supporting the author with one purchase, nobody should be expected to pay twice for the same product.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Price-fixing is apparently their right as long as they do it outside of Apple's cartel.

Saying the price is too high and I'll wait until they drop it below $10 next year is my right, which I now proceed to exercise. No cash monies for you HC!

 

[Puppies04]

And of course you can't get a discounted eBook if you buy the physical book. Which I still find to be the most aggravating part of the current digital publishing market.

Buy book, torrent ebook. You already own the material so owning a "back up" electronic copy should be legal I assume. The author got paid when you bought the real book anyway so who cares.

 

[ViRGE]

Also, the main complain is that unlike in any other competitive marketplace where the same product can be found for different prices, the eBook in this case has the same exact price, not discounted a single penny by any store. That $35 hard cover (this is the case for all books) is often found for far less, closer to $20. But that $17 eBook? It is $17 everywhere, no discount permitted, stores can't decide they want to accept less revenue by offering a sale.

How can a publisher have that kind of control? This is something I know understand why Amazon got into such a pissing contest with HarperCollins, to have this level of control of your distribution and endpoint sales, I thought all the anti-collusion judgments were going to make this go away. Apparently it just pissed off the snake that much more. :\

The problem is that you're still thinking of an eBook as a physical item. It doesn't require storage, it doesn't require shelf space, it doesn't require shipping. The only reason the wholeseller model existed in the first place was due to those reasons, because at the end of the day the retailer needed to get rid of the book.

But with digital goods retailers are nothing more than middle-men. They don't add any value (even less than the publishers!), the just handle the credit card transactions and provide the DRM services for their respective platform. There's no real reason they should be the ones to set the price; an eBook is just an app by another name. Consequently it is the authors/publishers setting the price.

More practically speaking, Amazon has already run all the other dead tree booksellers out of business. Do you really want to hand them even more power? It's all one long-term scheme to run other retailers out of business then jack up prices just high enough that Amazon makes a tidy profit while no one else can afford the startup costs to compete. There's a reason Amazon doesn't make any money...

 

[werepossum]

I am enraged because I don't know why I should be enraged over this.

+1

I too am amazed by the outrageous prices charged for ebooks by established authors. I am not outraged by them however. They and their publishers owe me nothing. I just don't buy them in Kindle. Plenty of ebooks for cheap or free by starting authors, and I can always pick the big names up cheap at McKay's Used books.

Great GIFs in this thread though.