eBook Pricing Afterthoughts

The essential thing missing from the eBook pricing discussion at TOC yesterday was quantity. Publishing is an industry which has great difficulty (not without reason of course) at determining the quantity that will be sold. There are many reasons why this is difficult for print books and it is in some ways a more essential question because balancing availability with demand is at least seen as all important (the notion being that one's desire to buy a particular book is fleeting). In the digital world, balancing availability with demand is a large scale issue and not related (in most cases) to any particular book. A server needs to be able to sell x books in y minutes, not 5 copies of book A and 10 copies of book B.

In the digital world though quantity may be the most important question regarding pricing. We may discover that some books are so valuable and the reach of the internet so broad that the market will tolerate $100 prices. On the other hand it may be proven that a low price of $10 or even $1 results in millions of sales for even mid list titles. Consumers may be more frivolous with eBook purchases if they are cheap.

Already we are seeing a phenomenon with the iPhone app store that may predict this. Apps for the iPhone are social currency. Having the latest and greatest trick loaded on your phone impresses your friends. We may find that Twain's definition of a classic is "a book that everyone downloads to their iPhone and talks about, but never reads".

Also, at $1 (or a similar level) people might be tempted to purchase just to try it out. Maybe people will purchase books in a manner similar to channel surfing, where they download, read a few pages, download another, read a few pages, and so on.

Then again maybe the fears are true and publishing will fall apart and book prices will rise (or salaries and advances go down) as the public becomes less and less interested in reading. If that is the case though it won't matter whether eBooks are sold at hardcover prices or not. You cannot undercut the cost on something that the market does not value. The most impressive thing about the internet and the digital age is scale. How likely is it that the quantity of eBooks sold will not scale?