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Regarding deals and promotions, I'm also rather assuming that publishers as well as authors would rather that people bought a book on a deal instead of borrowing from a friend, borrowing from the library, buying a used paperback, pirating a book or getting a completely different (free, cheap or expensive) book by another author and publisher.
Keeping an eye on deals and promo coupons pretty much means that instead of buying 30 books a year, I buy 250 books a year - that means another 220 books that authors and publishers get some money for, which they otherwise wouldn't get at all. And if I find out I really love some of those books, they'll get more money from me in the future - even up to full price, if I really like that author/book/new series.
It would be nice to be able to say "price is irrelevant" and buy everything at full price. Unfortunately not everyone's income allows that.
With paper books, I do buy them new if possible (unless out of print etc) - buying new on Book Depository (with free shipping) is rarely more expensive than buying used on Amazon UK or eBay (+ shipping), and if the price difference is negligible, I'd much rather see the author and publisher get that little bit of money.
Back on topic, I've just checked my spreadsheets and I'm definitely seeing a change in my book-buying habits: last year, my most expensive ebook was $12.21 and I paid more than $4 for 171 ebooks. This year, my most expensive ebook has been $8.56 and I've paid more than $4 for 36 books.
(On the other hand, unlike last year, this year I've also been buying ebooks for my mother - about 30 of them for €9-15 on average. I can't get them any cheaper for her; ebooks in Estonian are expensive, even if still cheaper than the same books in paper. This does mean that my book budget took a noticeable hit in what I can afford to spend on myself. My mother, whose entire monthly income is €200, cannot exactly afford to buy a single book herself, and libraries, with their non-changeable font paper books are out, so it's up to me to keep her in reading material. Unfortunately she doesn't read English.)
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