I live in the Netherlands, under Dutch and European law (fixed prices for books).
I love rummaging in antique bookstores to pick up some rare pBooks.
And I thank the fixed price system for the fact that not all of the regular bookstores are out of business, or my choice would be a lot smaller indeed.
Sorry for going offtopic for a bit:
I think the price of an eBook could be as follows (a bit simplified):
Code:
price(pBook) - [price of paper used for pBook/ individual copy]
Of course there is a certain balance between costs for hosting (including bandwidth) the eBook and the price of physical distribution of a pBook.
With both methods, the cost per book for the reproduction of the book will fall quickly.
The fixed price for the *author* should stay the same.
In the eBook world, it's much more feasible to publish in small numbers even by the author him/ herself.
I think the eBook model should really shine when it comes to educational textbooks. Those publications as pBook have a nasty habit of having a revision every year, making the last year's book worthless, because the teacher will reference the new, reviewed book.
In the pBook world this means that a lot of paper will be wasted making a book that some will only need a single year.
eBook textbooks on the other hand, could just be patched.
It's only logical that these patches should be far cheaper than the book as a whole.
This would save a lot of paper by adopters of e-readers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
(...)
You are just not allowed to make the authors and publishers pick up the check for your generosity.  |
Actually, Giggleton is allowed to do that, but only if *he is the author of the book*.