Thanks to Craig Teicher over at E-book Newser for starting this conversation.  I admit it, I’m obsessed with price.  And now Imperial, William Vollmann’s door-stopper of a book, is available on Kindle for the low, low Kindle price of…$31.95?  Reaction to the price has been, well, angry and confused.  Can publishers get away with charging that much for a book?  Since we can’t really look at the numbers (Amazon does well to keep them hidden), we can’t really say for sure whether or not people are buying the e-book, and whether or not those people are buying despite the price (or how many Vollmann fans have Kindles, or really want to read 1300 pages on a tiny screen–the questions go on and on).

In the discussion though, one question has been asked over and over again: how can publishers get away with charging so much for an e-book when so much of the physical production cost has been eliminated.  I answer this question with another question.  Does it matter?

Or rather, why can’t a publisher use the much bigger profit margins of a higher-price e-book to offset costs in the remainder of their business?  Using excessive profits from one project to fund another isn’t an anomaly, not even in our own industry.  We do it already, in many different ways.  The mass-market and commercial bestsellers make it possible for houses to discover new talents and publish more avant-garde and niche works.

But regardless, its all just business.  Its how we (as a company, as an industry) survive–and how other industries survive as well.  I often think that things I purchase are over-priced (like these jeans I’m currently wearing…) but that doesn’t mean I don’t buy them.  I know that they are made outside the US for an extremely low price and that the profit margins are huge, both for the retailer and the wholesaler.  My brand name cup of coffee?  Same thing.  But I don’t think said brand name is “ripping me off” (or if I do, it hasn’t stopped me yet).  After all, I think these jeans make me look great and they’re extremely comfortable.  That cup of coffee really gets me going in the morning.  So while I might not want to spend $31.95 on a Vollmann novel, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to (although that could go towards 6 cups of coffee or 1/6 of a pair of jeans).  As much as we love our customers (and we do! We love you!), we have to think of our business as well.

So we’ll see if this price point is sustainable.  If it is, great.  If not, we adjust.  Welcome to the world of $200 denim and $5 lattes (and $260 Kindles and $500 iPads)…