Re:The Danger of E-Books
by gdilla on Friday October 16, 2015 @10:53AM
(#10399694)
For the longest time, ebooks and physical books were priced about the same by the publishers - even though the revenue structure was different (wholesale vs agency). What they forgot was, because of the reasons above, these products are not equivalent. You can resell, lend, etc a physical book whereas you can't an ebook. The consumer gets that an ebook is intrinsically less valuable (well most consumers; the convenience of not using up physical space or taking up weight with ebooks is a value add for many, but that may depend on price too).
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It's even worse when the digital version is more expensive than the physical book. $4 delivered for a real older book or $8 for the digital version? Why? The physical book is far more valuable; rather than simply recommending it, I can give it away.
Re:The Danger of E-Books
by cableshaft on Friday October 16, 2015 @05:50PM
(#10402228)
Since the publishers won the rights to set their own prices on Amazon, the Kindle version has started to become $2-5 MORE expensive. There's two book groups I'm in right now where the current book they're reading is more expensive for the digital copy than for a brand new paperback. I refuse to pay more. Sometimes I might be willing to pay the same, but NOT more.
In comparison, The Martian was only $2 for the Kindle version because that guy originally posted his book for only a dollar (or something), and I bought it immediately and told everyone I knew about how cheap it was (the book was good enough I'd have been happy to have paid $10 for it, though).