出版与作家生涯2016genedoucette.me
出版业的集体疯狂
The collective insanity of the publishing industry
导读
这篇文章批评出版业在电子书定价上的“集体疯狂”：出版社宁可维持高定价、与亚马逊对抗，也不愿接受更高效的分销方式。对写作者来说，这组讨论揭示了内容产业的价格信号、渠道权力和作者收入结构，值得思考“谁来为写作买单”。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
一本书的主要成本来自编辑、校对、设计、排版、营销等专业劳动，电子化并不会让这些成本消失，写作者要重视这些环节的价值。
- 02
低价并不自动等于对作者有利：渠道用补贴压低价格，短期读者受益，长期可能形成垄断后再涨价，写作时要关注渠道结构而非只看单价。
- 03
进入门槛降低会让更多作者涌入市场，形成“向下竞争”，写作者需要靠差异化定位和品质来定价，而不是拼便宜。
- 04
讨论定价争议时，要区分“出版社想收多少”和“平台自己补贴多少”，看懂利益分配再下判断。
HN 评论精选
出版成本主要是专业人力，压低书价会破坏价格信号。
从出版业内看，所谓“疯狂”有原因：纸墨和物流从来只占成本很小一部分，真正的大头是写作、编辑、校对、设计、排版、营销等高技能劳动，电子书也省不掉，甚至更需要专业设计排版。出版业薪水长期压到市场最低，自由校对者每字只拿一美分，好的两美分。而且价格是重要信号，出版社不能让读者心中的“合理书价”被压得太低，不管亚马逊是否在补贴。
kevinr查看英文原文
I have a small pile of friends in publishing, so I'll take this from the other side. The reasons for the publishers' apparent insanity are: * Contrary to popular belief, physical production is NOT the single largest part of a book's cost. In fact, even before ebooks, the cost of paper and ink and shipping was actually a pretty negligible part of the final cost. Most of the cost of a book is the highly-skilled labor involved (writing, editing, copyediting, proofreading, designing, typesetting, marketing, selling) and these critically don't go away or even get much cheaper in an electronic world. Even ebooks need specialized design and typesetting, and I have some examples which did not get that love which will make your eyes bleed if you don't believe me. Salaries in publishing have for decades been nosing around the minimum the market will bear---as just one example, freelance proofreaders get paid a penny per word; the good ones get two. Many freelance proofreaders are also editors, copyeditors, and authors in their own right, and hustle their asses off to make incomes that, coming from tech, we wouldn't consider starvation wages. * Price is an important signalling mechanism, and so---given the costs of book production---it's important to the publishers not to drive the perceived fair cost of books down below, no matter whether Amazon is currently subsidizing that or not.
代理定价争议背后是渠道权力，自出版正在改变格局。
关于代理定价是亚马逊主意的说法很荒谬：代理定价最早由苹果推动，并导致苹果和大出版商因反垄断共谋被追责，当时出版商合谋以不下架书为条件阻止亚马逊打折。另外亚马逊自己也有出版业务，正快速抢市场份额；自出版在电子书领域正迅速超过传统出版商。亚马逊不只在做“图书版网飞”，也在做影视版网飞，它最大的竞争对手就是亚马逊。
Booktrope查看英文原文
The comments to this post are really interesting - one comment claims that (according to an agent) agency pricing was Amazon's idea, not the big 5, even though, the big 5 very publicly insisted on agency pricing. It's really absurd. Of course, agency pricing for ebooks was first pushed by Apple, part of what got them and the big publishers in trouble for antitrust conspiracy (when the publishers agreed to withhold books from Amazon if Amazon kept discounting) The the comments about Amazon and publishing, Amazon has a very major publishing operation (called, suprise!, Amazon Publishing). It's grabbing market share very quickly. If you want information about this check authorearnings.com (which provides industry sales estimates that include self-publishing) Of course the big story in the publishing business is that self-publishing is rapidly eclipsing traditional publishers in the ebook space. Amazon is not only doing Netflix for books. It's doing Netflix for film and TV. The big competitor to Netflix is not any network or studio -- it's Amazon.
门槛降低和低价竞争会伤害独立创作者。
一位独立作者庆幸销售流向低价的自出版书，这让我警觉：廉价产品涌入市场，亚马逊降低门槛意味着更多作者争同一块蛋糕。看看 App Store 的“向下竞争”如何摧毁独立 iPhone 开发者。
dcw303查看英文原文
> The sales that would go to that $15.99 book are going to lower-priced books from indie authors and self-published authors, like me. > They actually proved the consumer will buy the cheaper option, but okay I find it alarming that an indie author does not seem to be concerned with cheap product flooding the market. Amazon's attempts to lower barriers to entry means more aspiring authors competing for a piece of the pie. Look at how the race to the bottom in the App Store is destroying indie iPhone developers.
平台补贴低价短期有利，长期可能形成垄断后涨价。
作者原文说，亚马逊自己降价，出版社仍按原价分成，看似出版社占尽好处：按高价拿版税，却卖出低价对应的销量。但问题在于，亚马逊用雄厚现金以负利润打压其他渠道，这接近垄断行为；其他零售商也会要求同价，长期读者先享受低价，等弱小渠道死掉后价格再被抬高。
coldtea查看英文原文
>That sounds thoroughly reasonable, and it sort of is, but please let me explain because the crazy is in the details. What was happening was that Amazon was discounting the price of the ebooks, and it may seem like this is something the Big 5 would want to stop, except the markdown was coming off of Amazon’s end. In other words, if Hachette wanted to charge $15.99 for an ebook, and Amazon marked it down to $9.99, Hachette was still paid their cut of the full price of the book. More people will buy a book at $9.99 than at $15.99, so essentially, the Big 5 was coming out ahead in this arrangement in every conceivable way. They collected royalties at an unreasonably high price point while moving the number of units that corresponded to a lower price point. Sounds good, unless you factor in other Hachette customers that get the shaft, because a company with deep pockets like Amazon uses their cash reserves to undercut them with unhealthy margins (actually negative margins). This is downright monopoly behavior. Why should they accept it? And of course those other outlets will complain to Hachette or ask for the same prices. It's also a good way to screw the customers in the long run, as they get their cheap books from Amazon first, and then when the other stores with lesser means have died (unable to keep up with the negative margins), they can jack the prices again...
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