Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
As far as precedent goes: is it fair that publishers are chided for sticking with an ancient business model, while it's OK for consumers to expect pricing strategies to remain the same forever?
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Publishers used to make a living selling paper books at prices they set. There was reasonable competition between publishers that I think it's fair to say that the paper book prices were reasonable for both publishers and readers.
With ebooks the publishers should have the same payments to make to authors and editors for producing the text of the book. They save money on physical production and shipping. They benefit from the absence of a second-hand market.
Therefore, if the ebook price is higher than the paper book price, publishers are making 'excess' profit.
Personally, I won't buy a book if the ebook price is higher than the new paper book price.
Well, at the moment it's a very rare ebook that I'll buy unless it's on a special offer making it much cheaper that a new paper copy.