Can someone explain.....
 

WH Smith Web site

Terry Pratchett - Unseen Academicals

Paperback = £4.79
Hardback = £12.34

Epub Download = £15.91


What do they take us for?

.....Demonoid = Free

And they wonder why people are tempted :rolleyes:

did you ask WH Smith?

the epup is a HardPaperBack, sold by C.M.O.T Dibbler!

I'm now reading the paperback edition - bought it yesterday. Go Terry!

So is that the Hardback text ePub or the paperback text ePub?

I managed to pick Unseen Academicals for free during one store's special offer that was posted in the deals forum here a while back.

If I hadn't gotten it for free and converted it to PDF, I would have just bought the paper copy. In fact, I still considered getting a paper copy just to save myself from the nuisance of making a PDF.

It's not just Smiths and it's not just this book: higher prices are being asked for eBooks pretty much across the board. The only reason I'm reading McCulloch's 'History of Christianity' on an eReader is because the paper version, at over 1,000 pages, weighs a ton. Otherwise, it would have been cheaper to buy the hardback.

BAH

That really does suck.

Suckers.

Fools.

Cattle.

Nonsense, eh, Slider? And you can bet your boots the digital version carries DRM. Cheers. Neil

They’re trying to take you for £15.91. I checked Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and BooksOnBoard. All three sites are charging $12.99 USD Most of Amaznon's ebooks are $9.99, so that's more than a little high. I would suggest that whomever set that price may have been a little high as well.

My guess: hardback price + VAT (it's normal VAT on ebooks, not book VAT - they're considered "software").

Not that I don't think it's stupid.

@ Ea £12.34 + VAT at 17.5% = £14.49 so its not even that.

@ All:
Well; lets expand this a bit. Where is the best place to source ebooks these days?

I use a Cybook in Mobi mode, but currently buy books in prc or epub and -ahem- enable them to be read on the reader and within Calibre.

I have been a good customer of FictionWise, but in my opinion they have gone down the pan with books that were available a few weeks ago gone, and other series of books missing episodes, they have even cancelled micropay (which helped be get around geographical restrictions). So as my last micropay has been used up who should benefit from my custom now?

Agency 5 prices + geographic restrictions = pirate copy

Simple equation.

I truly wonder if these companies fully understand they are contributing to the increase of available darknet ebooks. Did they turn a blind eye to the aimless meanderings of the music industry over MP3's?

I guess the answer is yes.

They don't "Want" to sell you ebooks. Hence they will charge whatever they can. And if they price the ebook so high that few buy it, guess what, they are happy about it.

They are in the business of selling paper, and that's what they want to do.
Whats worse they are very poor at it, the system has incredible amounts of waste built into it.

The only way to make it stop is to refuse to buy anything from anyone that costs more than the paperback would have. Support those publishers (like Baen) that support you.

Leave the rest to rot from within.

The digital revolution will happen, indeed is happening as we speak.

Publishers who won't work with ebooks and people who want ebooks at a reasonable price are just forcing consumers to the darknet.

Sabredog is right on the money.