[Timboli]

Following on from my divergence in my last post ... still all related.

After deciding to actually buy ebooks from Amazon, I was determined it would only be for new authors, and not those I already collected. That didn't last long, as prices and availability and ease of purchase made me change my mind. I did however for a good long while, restrict it to non series ebooks. Or to put it another way, if I had started buying physical books in a series, then I would continue to do so. New series were a different matter.

(One of the reasons for sticking to physical format for a series, was resale options.)

Much later of course, I finally realized I much preferred to read an ebook, for a variety of reasons, so buying new books as physical made no sense. I also have to downsize one day, and my bookcases take up a lot of space, so I had to get sensible. I was also thinking of a possible future, where I went on the road now and again after retirement, in a caravan or campervan or RV (dreaming). Where the ideal thing would be to have my movies, books and music etc in a digital format, to make the most of space etc.

In the decade prior to buying an ereader, I bought a lot of physical books (mostly paperback) at sales tables in shopping centres and beyond. It seemed there was always a book sale on somewhere and every weekend for sure. This was certainly true in my home city in AUS, and after a while it became a sort of norm. In that time I bought a lot of books I would never have considered, just because they were only a dollar or three and sounded great or interesting. At that time, most new releases in Book Shops were going for $20-$24 each. Old releases were a little cheaper.

Such a conflict or contradiction going on. Why not sell for cheaper and avoid so many sales?

Even before those sales started or became common, I refused to pay new book prices. I felt they were way over-priced. A few years prior, books experienced a big jump in prices, around the time GST (tax) came into existence here in AUS. That jump was bigger than the extra 10%, and it seemed someone was taking advantage to get more profit.

So I either bought from supermarkets which gave discounts or sales tables. Later I bought via the web. I also bought a lot of second hand books.

Over the years, I have read many accounts by authors such as Piers Anthony and Terry Goodkind and many others, of how many Publishers behave (certainly prior to ebooks), and like with the Music Industry, a lot of greed and rorting and bias is going on. So my trust, as it is with politicians, is quite low with Publishers. So when they say ebooks are just as expensive (some even say more), I just call liars ... and there are plenty of examples out there of good publishers and authors making a good living selling at fair prices. Incredibly, some of the worst offenders are those with a huge fan base ... just pure greed and opportunism ... and ultimately, stupidity.