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GA Russell · 09-01-2010, 02:31 PM

I understand the argument that the accountants should assign the eBook edition its fair share of the burden of the publisher's creating the book. And I don't disagree.

Yet as I understand it, there is a huge number of books available for free on the darknet.

So if the pirate can create the eBook for next to nothing, I think that the publishers are out of line to suggest that the creation of the eBook is a large expense.

I think this goes back to the debate about the Labor Theory of Value. The Austrians showed that just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, value is in the eye of the purchaser.

So I think that the publishers are justified to charge a high price for an eBook best seller just off the press that is in the news. But I see little justification for the setting of the price of a backlist fiction eBook near that of the paperback version. That's just price gouging.

09-01-2010, 02:31 PM	#150
GA Russell Riders win Banjo Bowl Posts: 7,699 Karma: 31487351 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Device: Paperwhite, Kindles 10 & 4 and jetBook Lite	I understand the argument that the accountants should assign the eBook edition its fair share of the burden of the publisher's creating the book. And I don't disagree. Yet as I understand it, there is a huge number of books available for free on the darknet. So if the pirate can create the eBook for next to nothing, I think that the publishers are out of line to suggest that the creation of the eBook is a large expense. I think this goes back to the debate about the Labor Theory of Value. The Austrians showed that just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, value is in the eye of the purchaser. So I think that the publishers are justified to charge a high price for an eBook best seller just off the press that is in the news. But I see little justification for the setting of the price of a backlist fiction eBook near that of the paperback version. That's just price gouging.