Nookbook more expensive than actual book????

[ZOMBully]

First of all it should be known I replied to this on my nookcolor I cant be for certain but i was under the impression this is one if not the only "ereader" I can do so with. Now about the pricing even on amazon when I first search no "hardcover" book was cheaper then any ebook... true "paperback" was. But if you take both styles im pretty sure you cant change the brightness, font size, spacing, or frame... nor can you highlight your favorite line and post it to your social site. Now as for amazon vs bn all the complainers must be neglecting their google because the workd of tech and so forth claim this little device as revolutionary to ereaders and even tablet. Last thing I have to add in this reply is someone said something about the nc only being able to read nookbooks... leaving me wondering how i put my own writing on here or all the ones i downloaded from free domain sites and put on using adobe reader thing (dont have the name on hand) but its the same program i use to put library books on. Look the tech world and lit world thinks your lucky to have this and you still find ways to try ti get more for less. Someone even said the were going to go to amazon, yeah cause the few threatening to leave will get barnes and nobles to bow down. Might work with a spouse or partner but not in the buisness world.

[bklvr896]

---

pebb2 wrote:

I agree that new e-books are a bit overpriced. I do not see why all e- books whether new or not should be more than 9.99.  No matter what anyone says, it's alot more profitable to have a few digital copies on several servers and sell one digital copy to thousands of people. You cannot sell the same hardback book to a thousand people.  So they are saving millions and making millions at the same time.  I belong to several book clubs and most of the books on release are the same price as the e-books.  One way to counter this is to shop around with the various e-book publishers.  I find that fictionwise.com is sometimes cheaper (and it is owned by BN)

---

First, cost rarely has anything to do with price.  If it did, you wouldn't pay $2.50+ for a box of popcorn at the movies.  

You should search these boards for "Agency Model" and "pricing" to see the hundreds of discussions on this topic, there's a lot of good information in some of those threads.  The $9.99 price point a lot of people have seems to be based on the fact that was Amazon was selling the books for, before the Agency Model went into effect.  Amazon was losing about $3 per book a this price, so there is no basis to that being a fair price for a book.  

Also, the cost of printing, etc a printed book are not as big a part of the book cost as a lot of people seem to believe.  Agents, editing, formatting and all the overhead that goes with creating a book has to be spread across all books regardless of format.  And leasing space to house servers and hire compentent people to keep those servers updated and running and software to protect the information isn't necessarily cheap.

Here's a link to a NYT article from last year about book pricing and that printing costs are about 12.5% of the total cost.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/weekinreview/17rich.html

[Perfidious1]

I also think many nook books are overpriced. I just don't buy them. 

[Nathander_Von_…]

I look at this from a different perspective.

It's a 45 minute drive for me to get to the closest bookstore in my area. The time saved by not driving (And the money saved in gas) more than makes up for the price of a new Nook Book for me. Sure I can and have ordered online and had books delivered to me. Add time spent waiting for your books to arrive and the shipping cost and it's just not the best way to buy books for me.

With my Nook Color I just go online, shop for a few minutes, buy a book and have it ready to read in a few seconds. Saves me time, money and hassle.

I'm quite happy to pay a slight charge on new releases for the convenience and -that-was the main reason I bought a NC in the first place. Convenience.

I've bought a large amount of books ranging between $0.99-$3.99 and downloaded a bunch of free books from B&N too.

I've also gotten a lot of free classics in EPub and PDF format from other sites, which work perfectly fine on the NC once you transfer them with Adobe Digital Editions, Kobo books can be downloaded and transferred the same way, or at least that's what I've been told by Kobo reps. But from what I've seen Kobo has the same prices as B&N so why would I bother?

And I guess if I wanted to be bothered to mess about for a few minutes I could always just root my NC and then download the Amazon app but since I've gotten so many great books without having to be bothered with it why should I?

Personally I love my NC and haven't had any complaint's so far.

[Fraidycat]

I haven't used my nook in several months.  I went in tonight to look for a few titles for it, because I wanted to start using it again, and the ebook prices were the exact same prices as the paperback.  When you take into account that I can use my B&N membership discount on the paperback but not the ebook, it is actually more expensive for me to buy the ebook. 

[suem3667]

I agree completely!!

I was assured that B&N would keep their NOOKbooks cheaper then regular books.  Most of the time they(digital books) are the same price or just slightly cheaper then purchasing a print book.

It is really getting frustrating that B&N would do this...I feel as though it was a gimmick to get people to buy a high priced e-reader promising inexpensive books, and then when they have a lot of people owning these e-readers they up their prices!

[bklvr896]

---

suem3667 wrote:

I agree completely!!

I was assured that B&N would keep their NOOKbooks cheaper then regular books.  Most of the time they(digital books) are the same price or just slightly cheaper then purchasing a print book.

It is really getting frustrating that B&N would do this...I feel as though it was a gimmick to get people to buy a high priced e-reader promising inexpensive books, and then when they have a lot of people owning these e-readers they up their prices!

---

In many instances, it is not B&N who is doing it, it is the publisher.  All six major publishers entered into the "Agency Model" with B&N and all other eBook retailers.  The publisher sets the price of the book, not B&N. B&N is only the agent for the publisher and B&N is not allowed to discount the books.  This is why the price of a lot of the books is the same, regardless of where you look.  It certainly isn't all books, but the vast majority of popular works today.  You can tell by looking at the product details.  It will say:

Published by: Penguin Group

Sold by:  Penguin Group.

vs

Published by: MIRA Books

Sold by: Barnes and Noble.

When it says Sold by Barnes and Noble, they have control of the price, when it says sold by someone else, no control.

Oh, and a Nookbook is an "actual" book.

[RHWright]

---

suem3667 wrote:

I agree completely!!

I was assured that B&N would keep their NOOKbooks cheaper then regular books.  Most of the time they(digital books) are the same price or just slightly cheaper then purchasing a print book.

It is really getting frustrating that B&N would do this...I feel as though it was a gimmick to get people to buy a high priced e-reader promising inexpensive books, and then when they have a lot of people owning these e-readers they up their prices!

---

Assured? Assured by whom? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall B&N ever touting keeping the eBooks "cheaper than regular books" as a selling point. The sheer number of books, yes. The numerous amount of free (public domain) books, yes.

Now, I can totally believe a staff member in a store may have said something like this. I've heard plenty of misinformation come out of their mouths about the NOOK.

(Booksellers, don't jump on me! I'm not calling you all misinformed. I know you're not. I used to be one of you, for many years. But every store has that well-intentioned dufus or anything-for-a-sale cutthroat. You know who I mean.)

You may have heard this or gotten the impression of it from the general public who can't get over the notion that an eBook should just, well, be cheaper than a "real" book. Always. (But I won't go off on that debate again.)

If a B&N employee gave you this impression, I can appreciate your frustration to an extent. But again, refer back to the B&N official sales materials that have been prominently available on bn.com. At no time, to my knowledge, was eBook pricing a selling point.

If you were going by assumption and "common knowledge," well...

And as others have pointed out, for the 6 major "agency" publishers (which account for almost any mainstream fiction you might want to read) it they, not B&N who are in control of pricing and have been for over a year.

[tarajeandutch]

              I am disappointed in the price of ebooks as well! I am paying 7.99 up to 14.99 for new releases when to buy the actual paperback it is 6.99 to 7.99! One of the things that disappoints me about paying these prices is the fact that I do not have the same freedoms with my ebooks as I would if I were to buy the book. I am limited to how many people I can loan it to and for how long. And why don't all ebooks I purchase have the "lend me" option?? I was sucked into the convinience of the Nook. I read a lot and all of my books started taking up room I don't really have, so the Nook seemed like the perfect solution. It takes up no room at all and my books will even be a little cheaper, this seemed to be the case at first. Then suddenly it seemed like the prices jumped.Seems a bit unfair to me.  Now I know some will say that there are plenty of free ebooks and ebooks under $5 which is all well and good if they were the books I read on a regular basis but they are not, so how does that benefit me? It would seem to me that if you were to discount the ebooks you'd sell more therefore still make a profit if not a larger one with the product available at a more affordable price to more people.You would think spending the money on the device would afford you some perks but apparently that is not the case.

[bklvr896]

---

tarajeandutch wrote:

              I am disappointed in the price of ebooks as well! I am paying 7.99 up to 14.99 for new releases when to buy the actual paperback it is 6.99 to 7.99! One of the things that disappoints me about paying these prices is the fact that I do not have the same freedoms with my ebooks as I would if I were to buy the book. I am limited to how many people I can loan it to and for how long. And why don't all ebooks I purchase have the "lend me" option?? I was sucked into the convinience of the Nook. I read a lot and all of my books started taking up room I don't really have, so the Nook seemed like the perfect solution. It takes up no room at all and my books will even be a little cheaper, this seemed to be the case at first. Then suddenly it seemed like the prices jumped.Seems a bit unfair to me.  Now I know some will say that there are plenty of free ebooks and ebooks under $5 which is all well and good if they were the books I read on a regular basis but they are not, so how does that benefit me? It would seem to me that if you were to discount the ebooks you'd sell more therefore still make a profit if not a larger one with the product available at a more affordable price to more people.You would think spending the money on the device would afford you some perks but apparently that is not the case.

---

New Releases - the $14.99 are normally for new releases are for books with corresponding HC books, not paperback.  When the book is released in paperback the price generally comes down.  Has with a HC new release,  you're paying a premium to read it right away.

The publisher controls the LendMe option and for a great majority of books, the prices.  A while back the 6 largest publishers pulled most of their books from the LendMe program, it appears as if in response to Amazon starting to offer the LendMe option also.  So there are way less books that are lendable now, but it's not something B&N controls.

Same with prices.  The price of books books published by the 6 largest publishers in the country is set by the publisher, not the retailer.  B&N and all other retailers are prohibited from discounting the books in any fashion.  You can tell when you view the details on an eBook, it will say Published by Pengiun, Sold by Penguin.  This is called the Agency Model, if you want more information on it, search the forum, there's a multitude of discussions on the subject, but suffice it to say, that for now, B&N hands are tied for books published by these publishers.

One other thing on lending, depending on who you want to lend the book to, there is another way. You can look at this post, for information on sharing eBooks.

And to interject my opinion, I didn't buy my Nook with the idea the books would be cheaper, I bought it for convenience and a lack of additional storage space for books.  I buy a book for the content of it, not the format it's in.