This is the reason so many ebooks are priced at one of the extremes. $9.99 is the local revenue max for a demand-driven book. $2.99 is the affordability max for a normal (non-Veblen) price curve. So a self-publisher will make ~$2-7.
Conversation
35% between 0.99-2.99 is not worth doing. Just make it free. 35% above 9.99 means you need to find a second local revenue max.
Simple case: $7 = 1 copy at $10, ~2 copies at $11, 1 copy again at $20, 1/2 a copy at $40. Normal demand curve won’t do that. Veblen curve will.
2
3
Print is not strictly comparable. I self-published print in a way that I make almost 70% there too, but typical is 10%. Assume you can structure for roughly 35% for convenience, and you can say a $9.99 ebook and a $20 print book make the same money.
1
2
Amazon distorted the curve for a good reason — to create the market. But there are long-term anchoring effects. There is also the effect of e-ink technology. Much less eyestrain than LCD, but limited in quality of digital experience.
2
1
1
Having factored out unit economics, distortion and tech effects, the rest of market behavior is cultural. Oddly enough it’s younger people (damn trad Millennials™ ) driving the weird continued dominance of print. Mix of domestic cozy, reactionary aesthetics, and good eyesight.
2
3
There’s an identity signaling element too. All young nerds but only a fraction of older people use books for signaling (though Zoom backdrops may change that).
My own bias: I VASTLY prefer ebooks. Like to an unbelievable degree — I won’t even read some books on paper.
1
3
14
This is 100% ergonomics (weight, reading in bed with backlight, adjustable font size for comfort).
I will only go print if I can’t find ebook OR there are lots of rich visuals that ebooks handle poorly, since I can’t read books on phone/iPad comfortably.
3
11
There is a whole line of bullshit rationalization of paper books that I just don’t buy. Tactile feel, warm glow of ownership, supposed better retention of paper books, etc etc. It’s a whole reactionary bs cottage industry. So what’s really going on?
4
2
4
Only legit reasons for print: DRM/SaaS means it can be yanked and not shared easily.
Acceptable subjective reasons: aesthetics, sentiment, collectibility, experience design.
Bullshit reasons: vague “better for cognition” rationalizations based on utterly shoddy research.
5
6
Replying to
Unless you’re worried about keeping up your reading during zombie apocalypse, neither an environmental nor a practical concern
Replying to
i actually find paper books are better for scanning, ebooks obviously better for searching, and pdfs to suck in general
1

