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Originally Posted by barryem
I agree that it makes sense for ebooks to cost less than print books but we live in a capitalist system and free enterprise works by letting sellers try to get the highest price they can and buyers try to get the lowest price. Hopefully things level out. It doesn't always work and sometimes when it does work sometimes it takes a while. It does work a lot of the time though and that's about the best we can hope for.
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It is amazing (but not really) how many people still believe in the trickle down effect, which was disproved some 25 years ago and every day since.
Of course lots of things are done to pretend it is happening, to muddy the water.
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Ebooks are still pretty new as mainstream and the publishers are resisting them with high prices. Their goal isn't so much as to make a lot on ebooks as to make us buy print books. Their problem is that if we all buy ebooks at lower prices they'll start making less money and nobody wants to make less money.
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I don't follow that reasoning.
If a physical book costs $10 to make and provide, for example.
And an ebook costs $5.
And they both sell for $20.
Then they are making $5 more profit for the ebook.
If they sell the ebook for $15, then profit hasn't changed ... equal for all, still the status quo.
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My hope is that this will level out in time as ebooks become more common.
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Seems a vain hope right now. For any time soon anyway.
Thanks for the other interesting stuff you mentioned.
