Quote:
Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom
Why do I care about a 3 cent price differential? The same reason anyone goes off the deep end over something small - IT IS THE PRINCIPAL. Yes, I remember my economics class and supply and demand and what the market will bear. My little tax-obssessed statistical mind looks at the price of the ebook in relation to the pbook. If it is a book I want to read, and it is at least 10% less than the pbook, I will buy it. But if it is the same price or even 3 cents over, that darn principal is offended, and I won't buy it. I can get most of the Harlequin novels (can I even call them that?) at the library. There have been backlists I have bought, when the ebook was cheaper than the pbook. It just irritates me when the basic costs are lower, but the bookseller is asking for more, just because he/she can. I can go online and reserve the pbooks, and the library calls me up when they are ready. That is pretty darn convenient, too. It isn't like these books are massive volumes, that people don't want to cart around. They are short, tiny little books, with embarrasing covers and embarrasing titles. What the publisher should have said is
Ebooks cost more, because you can hide the cover (you may not get one) and the title of the book. You can pretend you are reading something worthwhile.
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I did a little research at the eHarlequin site. I thought paperback and ebooks had the same base price, but they don't. I looked across several lines to be sure. For instance,
one book was 14.95 in paper, but
9.89 as an ebook, and then percentage off discounts applied to those. Maybe it was a bizarre pricing fluke?