While searching for resources on print-on-demand publishing I ran across an excellent article putting into context potential lost e-book sales due to unauthorized copying. In an article on the web site of the Publisher’s Marketing Association, Danny O. Snow writes,
As “brick and mortar” bookstores know, a small number of consumers have always stolen books. Losses from theft are a standard factor in calculating bookstores’ operating expenses. Books with high prices seem more likely targets of shoplifters — online or offline.
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My experience as CEO of Unlimited Publishing LLC (www.unlimitedpublishing.com) reveals a related pattern. We publish books primarily in printed form, but recently began releasing e-books in cooperation with BookZone. We typically price the electronic editions below $5, while paperback prices are $11.99 to $22.99. In the planning stages, we learned that a substantial percentage of consumers — 20% or more — who download an e-book later purchase a printed copy. As a result, we now view e-books as good tools to sell tree-books — not much different than free review copies given to journalists and VIPs.
Snow has a lot more insights which could be boiled down to this — if publishers pass the lower costs of publishing e-books on to consumers in the form of low prices, piracy will become much less of an issue. On the other hand, if publishers insist on charging the same retail price for electronic versions of a book as they do for the paper copy, then a pirate market in electronic books will flourish.