Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivo
I wouldn't mind buying ebooks in the $7 - $11 range, but I think that publishers are still playing games. It may be inappropriate to generalize based on a small sample size, but I think I've observed the following pattern so far: ebooks are quite expensive when hardcovers are released, and then when paperback edition comes out ebooks remain expensive for quite some time before their price comes down. What is the purpose of this delay?
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That's publishers basing their ebook price on their physical book price. Many of them do so because they're afraid if the ebook is too cheap, it will take sales away from the hardcover book. I'm of the belief that there isn't actually as much overlap between ebook readers and physical book readers as some publishers think.
There's not question that some publishers are out to lunch when it comes to ebooks. They don't really understand the market as well as they should, so they price their ebooks to high out of fear, or they stagger their releases (some of the larger US publishers are releasing ebooks six months after the physical book).
So I don't want to pretend that publishers don't have learning to do.
As a consumer, I think $8-$10 is a great price for an ebook. Eat up books at that price. When we get up to $12, it's a little iffy. I've seen a lot of books for upwards of $18, which is ridiculous.