Publishers, seeking to capitalize on the shift, are pouring money into their print infrastructures and distribution. Hachette added 218,000 square feet to its Indiana warehouse late last year, and Simon & Schuster is expanding its New Jersey distribution facility by 200,000 square feet.
Penguin Random House has invested nearly $100 million in expanding and updating its warehouses and speeding up distribution of its books. It added 365,000 square feet last year to its warehouse in Crawfordsville, Ind., more than doubling the size of the warehouse.
Basically, publishers got into a big fight with Amazon, which wouldn't let them charge more than $9.99 for their books. The publishers 'won', and now charge more, $15.99 for a an old Star Trek title. The result has been that their ebook sales have dropped and their soft/hard cover sales have increased.
When one prices oneself out of the market ($15.99) sales will decrease. '
I myself have hemmed and hawed about kindle prices for a few years now. $2.99 is the magic number, Amazon gives you $70 percent. Some of my titles are $4.99, one is $5.99 and one $6.99. I charge a price as high as I think I can get that won't affect sales.
The publishers want is to buy physical books. I want to too. I own maybe half a dozen kindle history books. Year after year I accrue dozens of more history books. Right now I have a stack of hundred year old WWI memoirs. I love them, but that's another post.
Fifteen years ago, when Metallica figured out Napster was robbing them blind, the music industry tried to kill digital music.
I'm not sure exactly what the publishing industry's game is, but I'm getting the same vibe on digital in 2015 as I was in 2000.
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