Quote:
Originally Posted by bookwerm
Ignoring financial factors for a moment, and following your logic then (and I'm being completely sincere), what's the difference between and hbook and a pbook? Because your argument is true for both formats (identical content/intellectual property, just re-formatted). And authors get paid differently from hbook vs. pbooks, and pbooks are released a certain period of time after hbooks. If ebooks are just another format of the same IP, why shouldn't publishers figure out a way to formally insert it into the release process? Why should they be obliged to release ebooks the same date as hbooks?
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Good point. I think hbooks are to pbooks as theatrical releases are to DVDs. It is the same format, you are just payming a premium for earlier distribution. I agree that pubishers shoud figure out a way to release the ebook into the process at the same time as the hbook. After all, people with ereaders are voracious readers, and probably are the very people who used to buy the hbook. I would be willing to pay the same for the ebook, less some amount for the production cost and the fact that I can't lend it out.
This is really a fight between the publishers and Amazon, not the publishers and those who have ereaders. It is too bad that Amazon won't budge, and put the ebook up for sale at a higher price initially, and drop the price at a later date. As I have said repeatedly (sorry) there are some books I want to read as soon as they come out (Southern Vampire, early Steven King, Harry Potter). I didn't have an ereader until afteer I finished HP. Everything else, I have bought in ebook form, if it was availkable. If it wasn't, I still got it in ebook form.