[smokey]

thanks for your input, Azayzel!

Originally Posted by Azayzel

Of course your method could cut costs if they only have to physically print books when ordered and not bother with back-stock.

i wanted to make this point as well, but i failed to mention it in my first post. i'd like to think of the "soft copy before hard copy" method as sort of a try before you buy kinda deal.

now i was assuming that production costs for ebooks are super duper extremely low seeing as how it is just data. so once the paper version of a book is translated to digital format (through whatever process they use to go about doing this), production of the book is pretty much just a matter of duplicating that data times the number of volumes in demand.

now a question i intended to bring up was, would it be that big of a hit to the book company to offer a discount of up to 40 percent (percentage would vary from title to title offering the highest savings possible while still maintaining a fair return for the company) off on the paper version for every digital version that is sold? keep in mind that not everyone who purchases the digital version will always opt to purchase a hard copy. doing so could increase the demand for digital ebooks, and by association, the demand for ebook readers. the more interest gained in ebooks, the further and faster the technology would progress.

at least these were my thoughts, until i read this:

Originally Posted by NatCh

...just hit your local used book store and pick up a copy, or wait for it to hit the bargain shelf at B&N or Borders.

you know, now that i think about it, this makes a lot more sense.

thanks for reading and responding, everyone! feel free to weigh in, but now i'm pretty much convinced that NatCh's solution is the much more obvious, sensible and easier way to go.