[MaggieScratch]

My understanding is that retail outlets get books at a discount of anywhere from 40 to 55 percent (the big box chains getting the larger number), so you're saying that ebook retailers should get a lesser discount. Right? I agree with that (edit: but only if they reduce list prices), though keep in mind that many of the ebook retailers give discounts from the retail price (which is set by the publishers) because they can afford to based on the discount they receive from the publisher. That's also how Amazon and the big box booksellers can afford to sell pbooks at discount prices and still make money. They're giving up half their discount and making up for it in volume.

As I said in one of the Kindle threads, if Amazon is getting (presumably) a 55% discount on NY Times bestseller Kindle ebooks and selling them at a 50% discount, they're still making a tiny amount of money on them. Might not be enough to cover their expenses, though, which means they are taking a loss. Agree that their expenses (Sprint for Whispernet, server expenses, as well as publicity and technical staff salaries and associated expenses such as medical insurance and office space) should be less than the big boxes as they (maybe) use less personnel to run it (do we really know that?) and of course they don't have rent and utilities fees to pay for retail space.

I'm confusing myself now. Maybe I can simplify things by saying: while I don't think publishers and sellers should make MORE profit on an ebook than they do on a pbook, IMO it's perfectly fair to make the SAME profit on an ebook that they do on a pbook. (Insert "no DRM" qualifier here, I'm down with that.) The question is, how much does that reduce the price of an ebook from the pbook price? I doubt it's 50%.