[Kitabi]

I own a number of books from Vintage which is owned by RH. I had been contemplating re-buying them as ebooks but no longer.

My issue is not with Agency Model and my issue with price is limited to how good a value proposition a book is. I will pay a higher price if the book is worth that to me.

My bigger issue is that ebook prices do not appear to make sense to me in relation to pbooks. For most books I buy, paperbacks are priced cheaper. The publishers have done an awful job of explaining why I need to pay a higher price for ebooks. As many on MR have argued, the price of a book is related to notional value for the most part. The medium has limited impact.

Where medium is concerned, the common argument peddled on MR is that ebooks are perpetual and so should cost more but that is not the case. NOBODY - not the publisher, not the retailer - guarantees ebooks against technological obsoletion. If support for the format or DRM I bought with expires, that book is as gone as a damaged or lost pbook.

As far as the convenience goes, the compactness of an ebook library is offset by lamentable technology, the price of that technology, (replacing readers - most people forget that since ereaders are relatively new), change in ownership rules (no resale) etc.

This is why I feel that as an ebook adopter, the publishers are trying to unfairly milk me for more while offering less.