Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I don't see the relevance of that myself. Unlike paper books, e-books do not deteriorate with time, and they use no physical storage space. For me personally, they are therefore worth more than paper books.
My personal experience, however, has been that e-books are generally cheaper than paper books. Perhaps you're buying from the wrong stores?
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Hmmmm...When was the last time a reseller came to my house and took away my paper book because of squabbles with the publisher? This happened recently to ereader/Fictionwise customers. And why- if I bought it- can't I resell that e-book? E-books are not at all the equivalent of paper books. Production costs are far less- no paper or ink to buy, no shipping costs, etc. So they should be priced accordingly- in other words, for much less.
And e-books do not deteriorate with time, but they have far more serious issues. For example, take a DRMd e-bookm in a particular format. What happens when a reader no longer has the device to read that format? What happens if you can't buy the device any more? I have many paperback books in my basement from the 40s and 50s, and they may have deteriorated slightly, but are still extremely readable.
And no, e-books are not necessarily cheaper, either, although they should be. I needed a certain book on scripting, and looked at Amazon and other resellers- the price was a minimum $36. Okay, had it been reasonably priced, say $10, I would have bought it in e-book form. I saw the paper at Borders for $32, but hey- I was a little pissed off, so I went all the way downtown and borrowed it from the main local library. For FREE! Sorry publishers- you lost a sale.
A huge wave is coming, and will wash over many publishers. I have been taking classes again this summer, and one of my accounting texts was $210! Wait till people seriuosly start challenging the textbook publishers on the price issue, and demanding reasonably priced ebook versions of texts.