PatNY, try
Borders AU. It has the ePUB for $29.95 AUD (I know, still not that cheap), but I don't know if it'll be geo-restricted.
Why is the ebook so steep in price? The ePUB is close to the price for a new release mainstream trade paperback here. I guess the local publishers still want to treat ebooks like physical books.
Why are physical books so expensive here? Although there's some arguments to be made for economy of scale, most of it I really think is due to the stranglehold that local publishers have here. We currently have parallel importation restrictions, meaning that local bricks-and-mortar booksellers aren't allowed to sell overseas editions of books (e.g. American, British) when local publishers have the rights to publish and sell their own editions of these books here. The federal government was considering a few years ago to remove such restrictions so that local booksellers could remain competitive by importing cheaper, overseas versions, as more and more Australians turned (and still do turn) to ordering overseas from Amazon and the Book Depository. Local publishers and some local authors lobbied successfully against this however, claiming that allowing overseas imports to be sold in retail would destroy the local industry and stunt the growth of Australian literature.
I would like to support the local book industry, but being like any other person here who loves reading, if I can get three physical books from the UK-based Book Depository for the cost of one book from a local retail store such as Dymocks, I'll go for the Book Depository.
