Comments on: Discounts and risk in the ebooks market http://futurismic.com/2009/04/17/discounts-and-risk-in-the-ebooks-market/ Presenting the fact and fiction of tomorrow since 2001 Sat, 19 May 2012 23:03:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Dave http://futurismic.com/2009/04/17/discounts-and-risk-in-the-ebooks-market/comment-page-1/#comment-25698 Dave Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:24:28 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=7017#comment-25698 This forms a sad sequel to Schnittman's "E-books must fail" post, since it confirms that he has a bizarre dinosaurian view of publishing economics. This forms a sad sequel to Schnittman’s “E-books must fail” post, since it confirms that he has a bizarre dinosaurian view of publishing economics.

]]> By: Dave http://futurismic.com/2009/04/17/discounts-and-risk-in-the-ebooks-market/comment-page-1/#comment-25696 Dave Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:22:21 +0000 http://futurismic.com/?p=7017#comment-25696 This is the silliest thing in the world. The risks assumed by paper book retailers simply don't exist for e-books. Having unsold books on your shelf is a risk for physical retailers of paper books because of overhead and the opportunity cost of shelf space. For e-book retailers, both of these are essentially $0.00 per title. A much better model for e-book distribution is something like iTunes. Music publishers and artists don't need to insure Apple against the risk that their music won't sell, because that costs Apple almost nothing. Furthermore, an increasing share of music on iTunes circumvents conventional publishers entirely, coming through CDBaby or something similar. This is the silliest thing in the world. The risks assumed by paper book retailers simply don’t exist for e-books. Having unsold books on your shelf is a risk for physical retailers of paper books because of overhead and the opportunity cost of shelf space. For e-book retailers, both of these are essentially $0.00 per title.

A much better model for e-book distribution is something like iTunes. Music publishers and artists don’t need to insure Apple against the risk that their music won’t sell, because that costs Apple almost nothing. Furthermore, an increasing share of music on iTunes circumvents conventional publishers entirely, coming through CDBaby or something similar.

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