What really gets me is pricing. Ok, we pay more for a hardcover because it costs more to make a hardcover book then it does to make a paperback. And then we get rediculous eBook pricing based on the hardcover when the container for the eBook will never change. It is as it is. Once it's made, the container never changes. if it's BBeB, Mobipocket, ePub, eReader, etc. So why charge us as thought it cost more to make? Then we move from hardcover to paperback and I find a lot of eBooks don't have the price change or if they do, it's still more costly for the eBook then the paperback.
This is what drives people away from eBooks. First off they have to pay for the device to read them with and then on top of that pay ridiculous prices for the actual eBook. I've recently emailed BooksOnBoard about an eBook that is now more costly then the paperback and was told it was the publisher that sets the price and nothing can be done. This is stupid. All it does is drive people to the Darknet to find these eBooks instead of paying such prices.
Speaking of Breaking Dawn, I see it's available at BooksOnBoard for $17.70 in Mobipocket format only. But I can get it from Borders for $14.48 (including tax). Why is this allowed to happen? Why do publishers thing we who want eBooks are stupid enough to fall for such business practices? We are not stupid. We are just early adopters who without, eBooks would most likely fail. They need us to purchase eBooks. But I won't if we get treated like dirt. The publisher treat us like dirt and think it's ok to charge more then the pBook editions. In fact, given the pBook model, the eBook should start off in price lower then $7.99 given that the eBook container is one that is not going to change. I think ebooks would take off like crazy if for the average book like Breaking Dawn we were charged $5. That's just a little more then 40% off of the paperback price of $7.99. Oh and then there's this other stupid format of taller and thinner so they can have more pages and bigger print just to be able to charge us more. It doesn't even feel natural in the hand to read. Anyway, they charge a lot for it and I bet the eBook price will also be based on this abomination.
Why are we treated like we don't matter? We do matter and publishers need to realize this.
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