Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Well that's an innovative argument.  Ebooks are still a fraction of the market, and publishers don't want ebooks to cannibalize the high-margin sales or for the public to devalue the worth of their product. |
See, I think THAT is the 'innovative' argument. You are assuming that my hypothetical ebook purchase is REPLACING what would otherwise have been a hardback or paperback purchase, and for many people on this forum, that is not true at all. It is replacing a non-purchase of anything. I have never bought a hardback in my life because they are too expensive, and I do not buy paperback anymore because they are too bulky to store. I prefer ebooks because there is no storage issue. So my ebook sale is replacing what would otherwise be 'get the hardback from the library.' You are going from no sale at all, in any form to one sale, in ebook form. There would be no benefit to you, from the viewpoint of my individual sale, to holding back or not offering at all an ebook version. In fact, you would lose a sale.
As for the 'benefit' you speak of---that is only true if the book is an unencumbered DRM. There is no use to me to have eleven million copies of a book in one format if my next device uses a different format and I can't read it anymore.