I find the pricing of backlist books very frustrating. Here is a book I would love to have as an ebook, Watership Down:
http://www.amazon.com/Watership-Down...4323731&sr=8-1
Kindle edition costs $13.99. I could get a trade paperback, new, for $11.56, or I could get a mass market paperback (the same edition I read as a kid!), used, for $3.99 (including shipping).
Yes, this is a case that JSWolf is talking about, where they most likely did not have digital files so they had to do some work to create the ebook edition, but still.... $13.99 is just TOO MUCH.
Contrast this with Rosetta Books which puts out classics that are still under copyright. In addition to production costs, I am assuming they had to pay something to the copyright holder (actually I don't really understand how this works). Brave New World, for example, costs $6.49, and Slaughterhouse Five costs $5.24.
Oh actually I see that Rosetta Books is not part of any agency publisher, so these lower prices reflect Amazon's discounting. It's hard to say if Amazon is selling these at a loss or not.
eP