People often complain about ebook prices in relation to paperback prices, but in the casesI've seen before they are comparing current ebook prices with paperbacks that haven't yet been published.
But I just got an email from Waterstones, advertising an ebook sale, and also promoting Steig Larsson Millenium Trilogy.
Clicking the link takes you to a page listing the three books of the trilogy, as paperbacks and ebooks.
Paperbacks: RRP £7.99, discounted to £4.79
ebooks: RRP £7.99, discounted to £5.99
What!
And yes, the paperbacks come with free delivery. Even if Waterstones are charging full UK VAT (20%), that still makes the ebooks each £0.20 more expensive (ex-VAT) than the paperbacks.
I don't think that this is Waterstones fault, necessarily. For paperbacks, they probably get 55% discount on the RRP, meaning that at £4.79 they are making £1.19 on each paperback sold.
For the ebooks, I suspect that they get a 30% discount on the RRP. meaning that, taking 20% VAT into account, at £5.99 they're making only £0.33 on each ebook sold.
With excessive pricing and DRM, you'd think the publishers were trying to kill the ebook market...