E-book prices to increase??

[pitbullandfire]

I'm not sure if this is the right area, but has anyone else heard the rumors that the prices of e-books will be increasing soon because of all the Kindles and e-readers sold recently? 

[Betsy the Quilter]

I'm not sure if this is the right area, but has anyone else heard the rumors that the prices of e-books will be increasing soon because of all the Kindles and e-readers sold recently? 

Ummm, no.  Where did you hear/read them?  Or are you trying to start the rumors?    I'm not sure why demand for ebooks would cause prices to rise?

Betsy

[intinst]

Why, production of ebooks can't keep up with demand?

[Jan Strnad]

I don't see the price going up unless there's a serious electron shortage. Fortunately, there are still vast, untapped reserves of electrons in nearly every part of the globe.

Seriously....

With more and more books being published electronically, including vast numbers of public domain books, I don't see overall prices going anywhere but down.

[CaitLondon]

I don't believe so. But something will probably happen w/prices because the publisher's prices are too high and don't match some of the indy authors who are also legacy published.

[pitbullandfire]

Ummm, no.  Where did you hear/read them?  Or are you trying to start the rumors?    I'm not sure why demand for ebooks would cause prices to rise?

Betsy

LOL...Sorry, I have not notations or quotations    It was the talk around the table on Christmas day.  Thus, I thought I'd toss it to the experts to validate or bust.  

[Hadou]

Granted, it wouldn't surprise me if publishers try to increase prices...  I don't think that they're really going anywhere.  But, I'm hardly any kind of expert.

[DYB]

I think if prices increases it would be in that way that everything goes up in price.  Digital music has gone up in price from the day Apple sold full albums for $9.99.  That is no longer the case across the board.  But I don't think there's any immediate trigger for an increase.

[drenee]

I had a similar conversation a week or so ago with a new Kindle owner.  I think my coworker read some old posts on Amazon concerning the price increase that happened a couple of years ago. 
I tried to clear up his confusion. 
deb

[jbcohen]

In grad school in my Experimental Psychology classes we were often taught to put no credence in rumors unless the person talking to you sites a creditable source, and john next to you at the Christmas table is not a creditable source.  Unless john happends to work for Harper-Collin's marketing department.  Other sources of information would be publisher's weekly or Barns and Nobles and I have asked B&N employees and they seem to be saying that they do not expect an increase more of an increase in competition.

[Geoffrey]

After doing a google news search, the most recent articles on the topic suggest that amazon ebook pricing in the EU will be going down with a decrease in VAT on ebooks from 15% to 3%. 

[Xopher]

I was also thinking I heard that congress was looking into the publishers' pricing structure to see if there were any anti-trust violations going on. If congress does take it seriously, I would think prices would go down rather than up.

[markarayner]

Jan, I don't think it's the electrons we have to be worried about. There are indeed tons.  It's the proton shortage we have to worry about.  I've read the Chinese are stockpiling them.  (I don't have a reference for you JB, but I'm sure it would come up with a google search.)

[meromana]

Basic economics tells us that increased demand should increase price, but in the case of these electronically delivered goods, it simply doesn't apply.  The increased demand in this case will not cause a scarcity of resources nor an increase in the marginal cost of those resources.  In fact, the ebook revolution has spurred a rapidly expanding supply (more authors uploading more books) at a reduced cost of production (more and easier tools for producing those books), and the effect of that, if any, would be to drive prices down.

--Maria