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"Cheaper e-books will kill us, says publisher"
I don't know if that is necessarily true. I for one feel that the greater peril lies in the more expensive e-books, the ones with lasers attached to their chainsaw-wielding-kevlar-coated bodies.
On another tone (or note, I like acronyms), if he thinks cheaper e-books will destroy the industry, we enter the CD vs MP3 discussion all over again. As far as I'm concerned, the so-called "industry" is nothing but a necessary evil to get authors (musicians, writers) in contact with their audiences. If one is capitalistic about it, the elimination of middle-men whenever possible is always a desirable goal. Or if one takes a more communist stance, culture is something to be spread around for free.
Shakira and Co are still filthy rich, despite illegal mp3 downloading. If NOBODY bought any songs they would still be rich, albeit not so filthy. They would just have to be able to sing in live concerts (unlike our dear miss Spears).
Granted, writers don't have concerts to monetize from, so I am not in favor of paying them nothing. But that doesn't mean that I still want to support lumber mills, paper factories, printers, brick and mortar houses with their staff, and most of all, editing companies.
Major writers do have some benefits (tenure, movie deals, symposiums all over the globe, etc), so if we pay a more moderate fee for our books the whole system is not going to crash on account of lack of writers initiative. The other problems (editing, reviewing, publicizing, distribution) at least as far as e-books are concerned, the internets solve them. The internets + cheaper e-books = more books for the buck.
But then again, if e-books become cheap, who will pay for the lasers? What good is accessible culture in comparison to novel-fights? I for one would pay to see the Iliad (the one from Homer, not the Dutch one) have at it with The Lord of the Rings. Achilles with his kevlar-covered heel fighting packs of Wargs with head-mounted lasers. Now that is worth paying for!
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