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I remember a time when many of these same arguments were used to justify why the music industry couldn't survive if music was sold digitally by song. That the only way to sell music over the Internet was by album or rental. There was also a widely held opinion that the music industry was a bunch of thieving lowlifes- reinforced by news reports of record labels refusing to pay their artists, colluding to fix cd prices, and the RIAA suing children for piracy. And how can you feel bad about stealing from a thief? And yet many people still want to compensate an artist for their work. I think this is why itunes is so successful.
It would be a mistake for the publishing industry to follow the same path as the music industry- It is fairly well known that most authors only receive about 10% per volume sold. Are we then to conclude that for, say, a 20.00 hardcover that the publisher and the retailer deserve to mark the book up 1000% over what they paid the author of the book? That a publishers contribution is worth 10 times what the writers contribution is worth? Even when there's no printing, shipping, warehousing, and destroying unsold copies involved? If the major publishers issue a statement that they give three times the royalties ( or 30-40% of the sale price) for ebooks, then I will happily pay the same price for an ebook as a print book. Otherwise my opinion of the matter will be that they are price gouging cretins who are cheating their authors and the public.
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