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The whole thing seems to be chaos at the moment. I remember reading the blog of one author who patiently described that the higher pricing on a hardcover than paperback had little to do with production costs and everything to do with release timing - you pay a premium to be able to read the book just after release etc...
With this he argued that if the ebook was released at the same time as the hardcover, we should expect the ePrice to be similar to (or even the same as) the hardcover price.
If you're content to wait for a year and get the paperback, you can also pay less it seems.
However, with the book in question that would mean that the ePrice should be at least the same as the paperback given the timing of the release - so in this example we see something quite different.
If you're prepared to wait this long for "Lost in a Good Book" in electronic format you would think you'd be rewarded with a cheaper price.
And that's why I don't listen to the calm words of authors or anyone else explain why ePrices should be the same when the examples quite often don't really match up with the explanation.
I think the best explanation of ePrices is that publishers will charge what serves their purposes. Whether that is to scare people away from the electronic back into more traditional media, or to maximise profit on a media they think they will suffer from due to piracy I really couldn't say.
For myself, I will pay what I'm prepared to. I bought "The Windup Girl" at $14.95 because I could not bear not to have that ebook in my possession. It's the only ebook I've bought at that price and I'm unlikely to apply the same desperation to many other authors. So in the case of that one example, the tactic to "overcharge" for that book worked - at least for me. Will the gamble work across the board? I guess only time will tell.
Regards
Caleb
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