Ebooks and the Price War featured on Jim Lehrer News Hour

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Don't get me started with electricity and power plants!

My great-grandfather had a gerbil farm and about a mile of exercise wheels which provided enough electricity for the whole region - at least if those little critters really went wild.
The came coal and all went down the hill. Progress, I'll tell you ...

The Ten Commandments, those were the days! One author self-publishing, a devout agent, and no one dared to raise prices without HIS consent!

True, and no one accused him of price gouging and being greedy when he claimed to own all the cows on a thousand hills or even everything like they do if any publisher tries to make a profit.

Dale

[thename]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

True, and no one accused him of price gouging and being greedy when he claimed to own all the cows on a thousand hills or even everything like they do if any publisher tries to make a profit.

While what you say is true, I fail to see where anyone is attempting to deny "profit" to the publishers (which are not exactly coasting on super slim margins for the most part).

But, the argument that ebooks should be priced the same as pbooks? Imagine a local baker sells their hand crafted bread for $3 a loaf. At the end of the day they donate the leftovers to a local shelter. Another, late night shop begins going to the shelter and buying up all the loaves for a dime a piece and then offers them for sale in their shop for $2.95 a piece. Cost to them is minimal and they know people are willing to pay $3 a loaf for virtually the same bread. But I think you'd find very few people comfortable with that business model.

[eGeezer]

Originally Posted by Solitaire1

This reminds me of the story of Digital Audio Tape (DAT). It was a format that could have been an excellent replacement for the compact cassette, just like CD was the replacement for the LP and 45. Unfortunately, it ended up being killed by industry forces and by advancing technology (recordable CDs soon became practical).

Thanks. I've been wracking my brain for a similar technology to the ereader which fit the small town "if you blink, you miss it" analogy, and DAT is the one I couldn't come up with.

I sincerely hope e-ink does not end up being the DAT of ereader technology, but it would be okay as long as whatever replaced it was just as good -- not just a "boy that's pretty cool" replacement.

[eGeezer]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

Don't get me started with electricity and power plants!

My great-grandfather had a gerbil farm and about a mile of exercise wheels which provided enough electricity for the whole region - at least if those little critters really went wild.
The came coal and all went down the hill. Progress, I'll tell you ...

ROFLMAO.

I'm still trying to get my mind around the visual of a bunch of little urchins throwing chunks of coal over the fence of the gerbil-generator field and knocking the wheels off the stands so they all start rolling down hill.