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Elsi · 06-20-2009, 08:42 PM

Hello Steve and welcome to MobileRead. There have been any number of discussions about the price of electronic books. Most of us feel that they certainly should not cost more than paperbacks, and -- given the perception that it costs less to maintain servers than it does to use paper, ink, and trucks to deliver the books -- the "fair" price point is probably a bit lower.

Some authors have voiced similar opinions, and have even gone so far as to sell electronic versions of books from their own servers.

With that said, there are thousands of books formatted for the Sony reader which you can download for free from this site and others. Our June 2009 Reading Group is reading and discussing King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard. It's the first book in the first volume of H. Rider Haggard's works. You can download it as BBeB/lrf or ePub format.

Also, if you like Science Fiction and Fantasy, you can start with the Baen Free Library and continue with Webscription.net where the SF/F books are DRM-free and usually no more than $6.00 apiece. Fictionwise.com offers numerous books as "Multi-format", DRM-free editions. Many of these are much more reasonably priced than the current releases you find in the Sony store.

And, of course, keep your eyes open for the numerous freebies that the publishers and retailers offer from time to time. Of the 158 books I have "purchased" from Amazon.com for my Kindle, 82 of them were free. That significantly reduces the average price I've paid for electronic books.

So, yes, it's terribly frustrating when you find that The Last Child by John Hart is selling for $11.99 in the Sony store, but you can console yourself that it's significantly less expensive than the hardback list price of $24.95 or even the discounted hardback price of $16.47.

Welcome to MobileRead. You'll find a large group of sympathetic folks here.

06-20-2009, 08:42 PM	#6
Elsi Wizard Posts: 2,366 Karma: 12000 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Texas, USA Device: Kindle; Sony PRS 505; Blackberry 8700C	Hello Steve and welcome to MobileRead. There have been any number of discussions about the price of electronic books. Most of us feel that they certainly should not cost more than paperbacks, and -- given the perception that it costs less to maintain servers than it does to use paper, ink, and trucks to deliver the books -- the "fair" price point is probably a bit lower. Some authors have voiced similar opinions, and have even gone so far as to sell electronic versions of books from their own servers. With that said, there are thousands of books formatted for the Sony reader which you can download for free from this site and others. Our June 2009 Reading Group is reading and discussing *King Solomon's Mines* by H. Rider Haggard. It's the first book in the first volume of H. Rider Haggard's works. You can download it as BBeB/lrf or ePub format. Also, if you like Science Fiction and Fantasy, you can start with the Baen Free Library and continue with Webscription.net where the SF/F books are DRM-free and usually no more than $6.00 apiece. Fictionwise.com offers numerous books as "Multi-format", DRM-free editions. Many of these are much more reasonably priced than the current releases you find in the Sony store. And, of course, keep your eyes open for the numerous freebies that the publishers and retailers offer from time to time. Of the 158 books I have "purchased" from Amazon.com for my Kindle, 82 of them were free. That significantly reduces the average price I've paid for electronic books. So, yes, it's terribly frustrating when you find that *The Last Child* by John Hart is selling for $11.99 in the Sony store, but you can console yourself that it's significantly less expensive than the hardback list price of $24.95 or even the discounted hardback price of $16.47. Welcome to MobileRead. You'll find a large group of sympathetic folks here.