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Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger
i was pointing out the fact that an ebook stays the same format-wise whether it's accompanied by a hardback or a paperback. ergo, these huge prices for ebooks that accompany hardbacks rather than paperbacks are a rip-off.
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No, it isn't.
Let's say a trade paperback has a list price of $12.50, and the hardcover has a list price of $25. (The publisher and the author get the same wholesale price regardless of how big a discount the retailer offers.)
It is patently absurd to imagine that it costs twice as much to print the paperback as the hardcover. When you buy a hardcover, you are paying more because
there is a higher demand.
There are countless products whose pricing shifts based on demand rather than cost. That TV you bought on January 5th at a 25% discount cost the exact same amount to produce as when you saw it at a 10% discount on December 5th. The only difference is that demand is significantly lower in January than December.
The hardback/paperback division is just an accepted mechanism to hide the fact that you're paying more because of demand. Ebook pricing just makes this pricing dynamic more apparent.
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Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger
like i was saying: greed! they still treat ebooks like a side-product rather than a branch all on itself.
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It's not "greed," it's "business." A company does not have any sort of obligation to base its pricing exclusively off of costs.
And by now, it's pretty clear most of the publishers realize that digital is gradually occupying more and more of the book market.
Eventually they are likely to add extras at a higher price, like video interviews with the author. The technology doesn't quite support that yet, and I expect there will be some resistance to it as well. But for the most part, they get it.
Perhaps it's the public that hasn't quite acclimated to the oncoming era, as indicated by, oh, I dunno... indexing "fair" ebook prices relative to paper prices?
