And I delight in having a book that's perfect for lending (usually means gifting) to a friend or family member who I know will enjoy it.
But following your example, Amazon sells "Learning Python" 2009 paperback for $34.64, while the Kindle /license/ version for the same edition is $25.75! And note the paperback version includes shipping costs. Paying 3/4 of the price for just a license on a single device is ridiculous, IMHO.
Every single book I've purchased for my Kindle will work on my android phone, my Windows VM, and my Kindle. If I had an iPhone/iPad/iPod I could read on those as well. And they all sync, which means I am quite literally always have dozens of books with me. If I run down to the store and grab nothing more than my keys, phone, and wallet, I can catch up with my Instapaper queue while I wait on line.
If I go on a short weekend trip, I don't have to use up a fifth of my luggage on books so that I can have a book for the plane ride there and another for the ride back. If I'm stuck in an airport with nothing to read, I can jump online and download any one of over 600,000 titles (and that's just from Amazon! I also have the option of grabbing a free book from manybooks on my phone and emailing it to my kindle account.) If you want to talk about ridiculous pricing, go pay fucking $29.95 for a new hardcover in an airport and try not to appreciate having greater convenience and selection at under half the price in the space of half of a magazine in your bag.
I've been accused of being minimalist or utilitarian, and I can't wait for the day when I can afford to rebuy all of my hardcovers in an ebook format and dump the lot of them on a local library.
You'll pay quite a bit more, though. $39.99 for the ebook, compared to $54.99 for print.
My partner is an author with a mainstream publisher and actually, Kindle offers a lot of opportunity for writers to publish independently and make more $$$.
An indie publisher can take take 75% of the profits from their Kindle sales. If Kindle as a format takes off then it removes the power of the publisher who is suddenly doing less and less (no need to print paper or deal with distribution contracts).
With lower overheads she can afford to sell her books at a lower price point (to your point on reduced e-pricing) and still make more than her traditional sales.
She agonizes over the DRM however, which I think is still hurting this area. She also sells PDF's but the issue then is the lack of distribution as you can't sell PDFs on Amazon obviously. It will get better over time, however - like iTunes went mp3 in the end.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-19882_3-10439335-250.html
And iTunes didn't go mp3, they just dropped DRM. It's still mp4.
> Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and only see a tiny fraction of what the buyer pays. This is not it.
Ok, first I think the idea that we should reject groundbreaking advances because they haven't fixed every problem by themselves is insane. Second, it really is opening the door for authors to get a larger cut. The industry had the authors by the neck because the authors depended on a lot of the value the industry added (publishing, editing, advertising, etc). Many authors still rely on those things, but with digital distribution it is now POSSIBLE, for authors who are willing, to do it (at least mostly) on your own.
Most of my best books are in the hands of friends and family or given away to somebody who would use them. If the electronic version had a reduced price I wouldn't mind. Even if it was for a limited time, like renting the book. But full price? You got to be kidding.
Also the authors are still getting scammed by the industry and only see a tiny fraction of what the buyer pays. This is not it.