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The e-book conspiracy comes to a close

It sounds like it will have to be the Government itself that takes the axe to Amazon, if or when it is so inclined.
 
I have never understood why e-books are so expensive. Ok there is as much work in formatting an e-book as a print book, but there are no printing costs after that which must factor into the price. Books have always been a volume sales business anyway - making e-books inexpensive to get people to actually BUY books (instead of downloading 'free' copies) seems to me the only logical way to approach it.
 
Anyone else notice that a lot of books on amazon are roughly the same price and that it's a tad bit more than $9.99?
 
It has always been a major pet peeve of mine that publishers or booksellers charge so much for e-books. Yes, they have the overhead, the editors, offices, promotions like they would with a book made from trees but - they do not have the materials costs, the distribution costs, costs for art for dust-jackets, shipping/trucking costs. E-books should be less that one half of the cost of paper books but they aren't. I have even found a few e-books that cost more than the paper editions. I think major publishers and booksellers should be looked at for illegal price-fixing. The merchandise just does not warrant the costs but Amazon and Barnes and Noble all fall within a few cents of each other. It all sounds very fishy to me...
 
Especially as you do not OWN an e-book, merely the right to read it. You can not resell a digital book when you are done with it. Admittedly I can understand the reasons for that as when you sell a physical book you no longer have it and the other person does, while you could sell many digital copies of a book and still keep a copy for yourself and none would be the wiser, but that does mean that paying the same for a digital copy as a physical one is harder to justify IMHO.
 
gonewiththewind said:
It has always been a major pet peeve of mine that publishers or booksellers charge so much for e-books. Yes, they have the overhead, the editors, offices, promotions like they would with a book made from trees but - they do not have the materials costs, the distribution costs, costs for art for dust-jackets, shipping/trucking costs. E-books should be less that one half of the cost of paper books but they aren't.
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I can't speak for the exact costs in the US, but speaking from experience in the Swedish publishing industry, all the paper and distribution costs make up about $3 (US) for a $30 paperbook. So that's the money you actually save when you go digital (well, that money minus the lower but still existing costs of distributing the e-book, which have to be paid by someone - Amazon aren't in it just out of the kindness of their own hearts.)

I think major publishers and booksellers should be looked at for illegal price-fixing.
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That's what just happened, isn't it?
 
Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut has been on my to be read list forever. I was pleasantly surprised and now will have t0 start reading through his books and stories. He is smart, subtle and a really great author ...
 
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