I don't think that the higher perceived value of an rpg pdf has much to do with the art and graphic design -- or at least it doesn't for me.
For me, it's all about the way I use an RPG pdf, vs the way I use a regular ebook -- as a reference while I'm working on scenarios for my game. I don't just read an rpg pdf straight through, I refer back to it constantly, copying sections out of it into an odf* and editing as needed to put my scenario together. I get a lot more value out of an rpg pdf than I do out of a standard ebook, or even, in a lot of cases, than I ever used to back in the bad old days when rpgs only came on dead trees.
* The urge to say "word doc" there, even though I haven't actually used ms word for this purpose in years, was overwhelming
I worry, and I wonder if you do too, about the coming explosion in ebook popularity (and the associated $10 price point) dragging down the prices you can charge for rpg ebooks.
I just re-read the last big paragraph of your post, where you came right out and said that you're worried about the same thing. I guess I was confused by all the talk of marshmallow bananas when I first read it. :)
We share more in common with the textbook market than the novel/nonfiction book market, I think, as RPG publishers. Specialized, deeply-developed material that tends to have a smaller audience and higher price-point. While I don't think either side in this dispute has "covered themselves in glory", as Rob Donoghue has said, I do think that Macmillan's perspective of pricing better handled as a publisher-driven concern is the right one here. It lets each "sub-market" of pricing behave as it needs to in response to the consumer. And if you look at the prices on RPGs vs. the prices on novels in the print market over the years, you'll see that the places the market has set the baselines are different.
The only problem with that idea, Fred, is that Publishers don't see readers as their consumers, so the idea of them pricing in response to *us* doesn't reflect the reality of the industry.
The thing that kills me about the licensing and format restrictions on the $10 ebook is that (for example) all of the books you buy to read on your Kindle are likely to eventually become useless to you when you decide to migrate to another ereader platform.
I wish people were more educated about what they're giving up for a marginally cheaper ebook because they're buying a license rather than a product.
The difference, I think, between renting a video and licensing a book via Kindle is that Blockbuster or Netflix or whathaveyou do not care if, after viewing the movie, I give it to a friend to see, as long as they get the movie back eventually.
I believe that the ability to "legally" lend ebooks to a friend for a limited time is one of the advantages that Barnes & Noble is hawking for it's Nook bookreader.
Second thing: From where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like Amazon was being clever. It looks more like one of those chess games where one player is a grand master looking ten moves ahead, and the other doesn't see checkmate coming until it's just about on him, and then thrashes about desperately trying to escape. (Macmillan's playing the grand master role in this analogy.)
My evidence: Last October, Macmillan saw this fight coming, and lowered the royalty rate for ebooks to 20% of net on the boilerplate contracts offered to authors. (Other big publishers offer 25%.) They saw this fight coming, and took action to control the damage if they lost
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For me, it's all about the way I use an RPG pdf, vs the way I use a regular ebook -- as a reference while I'm working on scenarios for my game. I don't just read an rpg pdf straight through, I refer back to it constantly, copying sections out of it into an odf* and editing as needed to put my scenario together. I get a lot more value out of an rpg pdf than I do out of a standard ebook, or even, in a lot of cases, than I ever used to back in the bad old days when rpgs only came on dead trees.
* The urge to say "word doc" there, even though I haven't actually used ms word for this purpose in years, was overwhelming
I worry, and I wonder if you do too, about the coming explosion in ebook popularity (and the associated $10 price point) dragging down the prices you can charge for rpg ebooks.
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I wish people were more educated about what they're giving up for a marginally cheaper ebook because they're buying a license rather than a product.
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I believe that the ability to "legally" lend ebooks to a friend for a limited time is one of the advantages that Barnes & Noble is hawking for it's Nook bookreader.
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Best analysis of the entire "battle" I've seen all weekend.
Ultimately, it’s not a moral question but a math problem.Well, a math problem by way of economics ( ... )
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Second thing: From where I'm sitting, it doesn't look like Amazon was being clever. It looks more like one of those chess games where one player is a grand master looking ten moves ahead, and the other doesn't see checkmate coming until it's just about on him, and then thrashes about desperately trying to escape. (Macmillan's playing the grand master role in this analogy.)
My evidence: Last October, Macmillan saw this fight coming, and lowered the royalty rate for ebooks to 20% of net on the boilerplate contracts offered to authors. (Other big publishers offer 25%.) They saw this fight coming, and took action to control the damage if they lost ( ... )
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