While I want ebooks to cost less, I don't expect them to. I no longer view holding the paper in my hands or sittting on a shelf as desirable. Perhaps regaining 25% of the price through reselling it would be an advantage although for a book costing less than $20 is it worth the pain in the butt to do this. (I believe some ebook sellers allow this option but have never tried).
I try to look at the ebook purchase in an overall manner.
1. Convenience - easily worth $2
2. Get 30%+ of my books from library - saving 100% on 1/4+ of my books. At least $2,50 average per book read.
3. get 30%+ of my books from public domain - saving 100% on 1/4+ of my books. At least $2,50 average per book read.
4. get the occasional .99 cents or free ebook (maybe 10%) or coupon book (another 5-10%)
So with 70% (approx) of the books I read being less than $1 I can survive spending a bit more on the others.
The convenience factor alone makes up for the a lot of the expense.
Out of 200 books for last year that I have actually tracked in calibre that I read
137 free.
45 less than $1.00
18 at between 1.99 and 12.99 - average 3.92
Slightly less than 20 cents a book spread over 200 books.
How could I achieve this by even buying and selling used paperbacks? Even at the thrift stores thay are not real cheap and one is lucky to get 25% of the retail price in trades.
Maybe I don't have full rights to the books but to read them for 20 cents and not have to physically deal with them via returns/trade-ins etc is a bonus. I used to spend more on gas/bus fare/time annually to borrow or buy books than I do now on ebooks and I used to have to pay for more books. Plus the over due fines
I am feeling a tad guilty now for not actually buying more books, bigger expensive books. Must think on that one.
Helen