Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Why would you not buy an eBook if it were a similar price to a paper book? To me, the eBook is "worth" more, because it doesn't use any physical storage space!
|
Harry, I would agree with one qualifier: if the book is DRM free. I am happy to pay the same price for a pbook as an ebook under that circumstance, but I am not happy to do so if the book has DRM. No matter how valuable the ease of storage is to me, DRM is a negative of greater cost.
Although not a reference book such as a dictionary (which I agree might entail a different analysis), I offer the example of the new Fiona McIntosh fantasy novel, which I have commented on in another thread on MR. HarperCollins, the publisher of the novel, lists the pbook price on its website as $7.99 but the ebook price as $14.99. It makes no sense to me to pay a premium for a DRMed ebook of the novel just to save shelf space. (In this case, it makes more sense to me to simply not buy either the p or e version and notify HC why, which I have done.) Having said that, I would have bought the e version at $7.99 even with DRM because I consider this type of book a read-once book and $8 is my upper limit for a read-once fiction DRMed book. (I will go as high $14 for certain nonfiction books, but they must be books I will look at more than once.)
I guess it boils down to the exhaustively discussed questions of "How much of a pricing negative is DRM to you?" and "Is that negative surmountable by other attributes of either ebooks in general or of an an ebook in particular?"