Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
This is absolutely contrary to my experience. I buy most of my books from Amazon UK, and typically an eBook will cost somewhere between half and two thirds the price of the equivalent paperback.
It may certainly be true that if you buy new releases, an eBook will cost more than a heavily-discounted hardback.
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I picked The Game of Thrones series at random at Amazon US:
A Game of Thrones: Kindle $6.99, paperback $6.74
A Clash of Kings: Kindle $9.99, MMPB $5.98
A Storm of Swords: Kindle $9.99, MMPB $6.83
A Feast for Crows: Kindle $9.99, MMPB $6.40
A Dance with Dragons: Kindle $9.99, MMPB $7.49
5 Book set: Kindle $34.99 or $46.95, MMPB $29.74
Apparently you can buy a box set of all 5 at a discount, or buy them all separately but together at full price for $12 more, such a deal. All of these are sold by the Random Penguin, and I see some other GRRM books where the Kindle price is about 25 cents higher than the discounted TPB (at least by price I'm assuming trade and not mass market). That merger must have been expensive.
In looking at some other SF, I generally saw the Kindle edition at the same price as the MMPB, $0-$3 cheaper than a trade paperback and at least $3 cheaper than hardcover, although some Vonneguts were on sale at $1.99 in Kindle and over $10 in TP, and I saw at least one Kindle book that was $1 more than the MMPB, and the book was from 1998.
William Patterson's 2nd Heinlein biography looks like it was just released in TPB, but the Kindle edition is still priced against the HC, Kindle $16.99, TPB $14.09, HC $28.73. I was hoping that it would drop to $7.99 like volume 1, but I'm thinking that's not going to happen, might not even drop to match the discounted TPB.