Controlling cost and what things are worth…

When I started in the PDF publishing business back in 2001 there was an unwritten rule that PDFs cost roughly 10 cents a page.  A decade later that price is 18 cents to 25 cents per page.  Now have PDFs improved over this period of time? Oh yes, the quality of PDF publishing has grown into its own with many people trying and doing thing that 10 years ago would be business suicide.  Most PDF publishers have been doing PDF publishing about four years. There are very few people who have been at this for a decade. The only two I know are Gareth and me.  Monte Cook was only at it for eight years. 

Pricing is a touchy subject due to the fact that it is an individual choice for each publisher and due to the flexibility of the market has not really been able to get it under some control.  The market normally finds some way to control pricing but there is always some type of elasticity to make pricing flexible. The PDF market is similar to what the iTunes apps market must be like: lots of small to medium sized players and few major players and pricing that is everywhere all over the board.  eBook publishing is starting to see the same issue of pricing.  With the cost of pixels coming down each and every day the issue of pricing will become more and more important over time.  What should things cost? What people are willing to pay for them.  And if you don’t like that, then you shouldn't purchase the product. And yes I am talking to you.  Talk to you later…