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2020 titles announced

Sorry, but that’s not representative of the market. I just checked “Captain Marvel” on iTunes Canada and it is $24.99 to own ($5.99 to rent). On Amazon.ca the same movie on Blu-Ray with Digital Code is $24.96. While it may seem that digital files should be cheaper they are not. Even audio albums I tend to buy on CD more than digital as the CD is usually cheaper. You have to remember that with mass market titles like Star Trek and Captain Marvel, the publishers are making thousands of copies and they usually get a discount on orders (in terms of CD/DVD/Blu-Ray probably also applies to book publishing as well) of more than 5000 copies. Whereas when you are talking about low runs of say 1 or 2 copies (like when I convert someone’s parent’s wedding video from Betamax to Digital or DVD) then you are able to see a little savings with file only (of course I always have the option of just charging the one price for both just digital and just DVD).

But then there’s also another elephant in this discussion and that’s inflation. Back catalogue digital files, the publisher may not change the price for years as they can’t be bothered to go back every month to change the price, but new titles are more because that’s the price now due to inflation.

I just had a quick look at some of my the Trek MMPBs I’ve got on my shelves. I don’t think they’ve increased by the rate of inflation for years.
 
I just had a quick look at some of my the Trek MMPBs I’ve got on my shelves. I don’t think they’ve increased by the rate of inflation for years.

Yes, exactly. MMPBs managed to stay at a fixed price for an incredibly long time, maybe 15 years by now. If their prices had continued to increase at the same rate as in the previous 15 years, they'd probably cost at least $12 by now.
 
I don't know. I still bring physical books and magazines onto planes, but I'm a dinosaur. Last several times I've flown, I've noticed that most of my fellow passengers are using devices instead: they're working on their laptops, watching movies on screens, or reading books on their phones and tablets. Increasingly, I'm one of the few passengers who is actually reading a paperback or newspaper.

Point being, airport sales of physical books may not be an issue much longer. As Christopher keeps pointing out, this isn't about MM paperbacks versus TPBs. It's about ebooks replacing mass-market paperbacks.

I can't speak for other passengers, but part of the reason I went ebook is because I couldn't fit enough books into my bag for an average holiday:D
 
Wordery are doing buy 2 books, get 10% off of the second. Expires tonight.

If you play it right, you can grab the Picard hardback for £11.40.
 
That is the only time I read ebooks. At home it is physical copies.

Used to be like that too, but everybody in our house is a heavy reader, so shelf space started to become an issue too:(
That said, I still grab a physical book from the shelf fairly regularly and get some more at Christmas.
 
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I'm a Luddite when it comes to ebooks, but, in theory, I can definitely appreciate the advantages when it comes to long airplane flights and travel in general. I still remember being stranded for hours on the tarmac in Washington, DC with nothing but a borrowed romance novel to read, because I'd already finished the book I brought for flight, and I also recall traipsing across Italy with what felt like a small library on my back: guidebooks, phrasebooks, pleasure reading, etc. :)
 
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For Star Trek eBooks, all S&S has to do is create a single ePub and that ePub is then the master for converting to Kindle. You don't have to convert for Apple or any others.

How come the eBook that takes the very same work to make previously was $7.99 when Star Trek was mostly MMPB and now that it's trade, why is the price $11.99 for the same eBook formats and for the same work? That's because the eBook price is based on the price of the PB. That's just silly when the eBook is really no different priced at $11.99 then it is priced at $7.99.

The other problem is that the TPB is allowed to be discounted and the eBook is not allowed to be discounted. At Amazon (US), the latest Star Trek TPB is $10.39 and the eBook is $11.99. The TPB costs more to produce as there is the cost of the materials to print (paper, ink, glue), the cost to for a print run, and the cost to ship to the stores. The eBook once done just gets uploaded where it needs. The eBook is (overall) cheaper to make. So why is it the eBook price is higher? Because the eBook is not allowed to be discounted or priced according to the fact that it's overall cheaper to make in order to boost the sales of the TPB. As was said in a previous post, videos are cheaper to buy in electronic form then on Blu-Ray because the costs for the electronic file are cheaper and that difference is passed onto the customer. Same difference here except S&S would prefer to sell more TPB then eBooks.



Yes eBooks are replacing MMPB sort of. But not at the MMPB price point. eBooks are being charged at the price point for HC or TPB. So that really doesn't make them a MMPB replacement.
I just looked though the Kindle and paperback/hardcover versions of the most recent Star Wars books, and quite a few of the Kindle versions actually are cheaper than the other versions. There were a few where the Kindle was more expensive, but that's just because the paper versions are marked down more.
And with TV and movies, the digital version isn't always cheaper, I got the first season of Titans on Blu-Ray because it was cheaper than the digital version.
EDIT: I looked at the Trek books, and right now on the American Amazon the e-books for Dead Endless and Last Best Hope are cheaper than the paperback and hardcover. Dead Endless is $11.99 for the Kindle version and $16.00 for the paperback, and Last Best Hope is $12.99 for the Kindle version and $19.93 for the hardcover.
 
I'm a Luddite when it comes to ebooks, but, in theory, I can definitely appreciate the advantages when it comes to long airplane flights and travel in general. I still remember being stranded for hours on the tarmac in Washington, DC with nothing but a borrowed romance to read, because I'd already finished the book I brought for flight, and also traipsing across Italy with what felt like a small library on my back: guidebooks, phrasebooks, pleasure reading, etc. :)

There are definite advantages to ebooks. My vision is terrible, so I crank that font up! :lol:

Plus, it is no hassle to carry extra books, in case I get bored with the one I’m reading.
 
One other thing I like about them I don't see mentioned a lot is that the devices you read them on are a lot easier to handle than books tend to be. I had some issues with my hands for a while, and it's a lot easier to hold an e-read or tablet one handed, or even propped up so you don't need any hands than a book is.
 
Bingo. Plus, in general, the old mass-market outlets are drying up. Between Amazon, ebooks, and Barnes & Noble, I'm not sure how many people are buying books at drug stores and newsstands anymore, which is what mass-market books were originally intended for. Indeed, TPBs are called "trade paperbacks" because they were intended for bookstores, whereas mass-market paperbacks are called that because they were meant to be sold at mass-market outlets like grocery stores, train stations, etc. And that market has been shrinking for years now.

A bit of history: mass-market paperbacks are basically the descendants of the cheap, pocket-sized books produced for American G.I.s during World War II. They've had a good, long run, but their future is in doubt.
Based on what Ive been reading in this thread it sounds like their future has been decided.
 
Developed a rather severe dust allergy as I got older so one of the first changes we made at the house was to (reluctantly) ditch nearly every book we had.
I own a kindle now and wouldn’t trade it for the world.
 
Such a bland publicity photo cover after the amazing Collateral Damage one. But still super glad this one is coming out at last.
 
How come the eBook that takes the very same work to make previously was $7.99 when Star Trek was mostly MMPB and now that it's trade, why is the price $11.99 for the same eBook formats and for the same work? That's because the eBook price is based on the price of the PB. That's just silly when the eBook is really no different priced at $11.99 then it is priced at $7.99.

I believe the authors have mentioned their word-count target is higher now with TPBs than it was in the old days, not that that was a hard-and-fast rule.

The other problem is that the TPB is allowed to be discounted and the eBook is not allowed to be discounted. At Amazon (US), the latest Star Trek TPB is $10.39 and the eBook is $11.99. The TPB costs more to produce as there is the cost of the materials to print (paper, ink, glue), the cost to for a print run, and the cost to ship to the stores. The eBook once done just gets uploaded where it needs. The eBook is (overall) cheaper to make. So why is it the eBook price is higher? Because the eBook is not allowed to be discounted or priced according to the fact that it's overall cheaper to make in order to boost the sales of the TPB.

eBooks can be discounted, but normally at the discretion of the publisher, not the store (since electronically-based stores generally take a percentage of the final price, rather than buying the books "wholesale" and adding on whatever margin they want as their cut, which allows them to sell below cost). I believe S&S does monthly sales with older Trek titles reduced to one or two bucks for the ebook, often on some kind of theme.
 
I apoligize if this has already been posted and I forgot, but David Mack's website has the cover and description up for More Beautiful Than Death. The cover is OK, but the description sounds really good.

I was curious as to how the Kelvin Verse novel covers would be arranged. Memory Alpha had the original covers from their initial announcement (I'm assuming just as a placeholder until something official came out).

I see it carries the original series typeface (but without "The Original Series" subtitle). I was wondering if they were going to include some sort of description below the title to indicate it was a Kelvin timeline novel (though I'm not sure how they would accomplish that "A Kelvin Timeline Novel" or "Kelvin Verse" novel seems clumsy. I guess they decided to let the cover picture tell you what kind of novel it is.
 
At least these days the cover art does seem to be a bit more trustworthy than it was back in the earlier days of the books.
 
I see it carries the original series typeface (but without "The Original Series" subtitle). I was wondering if they were going to include some sort of description below the title to indicate it was a Kelvin timeline novel (though I'm not sure how they would accomplish that "A Kelvin Timeline Novel" or "Kelvin Verse" novel seems clumsy. I guess they decided to let the cover picture tell you what kind of novel it is.

The blank cover art on the iBooks store calls ADF's novel (whatever title it has this week) "Untitled STR." I didn't keep track so it might be my imagination, but those seemed abbreviations seemed a lot more consistent with last year's preorders. The other purchasable-but-uncover-arted books have placeholder titles of "The Higher Frontier" for "The Higher Frontier," and "Untitled LBH" for "Last Best Hope," which is doubly inaccurate.

In any case, I have no idea what "STR" stands for. Entirely possible it's just "STaR Trek." At least they didn't go for the always-confusing nickname that Tumblr seems to have settled on for the Kelvin Timeline, "AOS" (Alternate Original Series).
 
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