Are e-books overpriced?

[Win32]

Perhaps not from the publishers' standpoint—I have no idea what profit-maximizing prices would look like. But from this consumer's perspective, they can be quite outrageous. Some publishers have made a habit of offering a $2 or so discount versus the hardcover.

[The Mikado]

I regularly see a discount of 6 or 7 vs. a new hardcover, not 2.  (The hardcover would be about 25, the ebook around 18)

[opebo]

What is an 'e-book'?

[© tweed]

yes, they should be free.

[Vosem]

What is an 'e-book'?

E-books are books that do not exist in book form, but are simply computer documents. Authors write books and then you have to pay for them, generally slightly less than you do in book form. Some people don't like this because it costs much, much less to manufacture an e-book than a regular book, but prices for the two are comparable. I'm unsure; I don't work in the e-book business and only then could I really say if something has a fair price or is artificially overpriced.

yes, they should be free.

No, they shouldn't; authors and editors and publishers deserve to get paid too, don't they?

[© tweed]

not for amaterial

[Win32]

Free is probably pushing it. But I think there is probably a fairly significant section of the reading public who would purchase both a hard copy and the e-book if the latter were priced in the $3 range. The first has value as a collector's item, while the latter is more convenient to use.

[Lief 🗽]

Anything more than $0 for an ebook is overpriced.

[Free Palestine]

Not in my experience, since I pirate all of mine.

Seriously, ebooks are not a replacement for real books.  You can give an actual book to someone or sell it.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Anything more than $0 for an ebook is overpriced.

Some of us creatives like to believe that maybe -- just maybe -- we should be allowed to make a living doing what we love. Isn't that a weird idea? That work can have value?

[© tweed]

Anything more than $0 for an ebook is overpriced.

Some of us creatives like to believe that maybe -- just maybe -- we should be allowed to make a living doing what we love. Isn't that a weird idea? That work can have value?

just nationalize art and give writers block grants for projects.

[The Mikado]

not for amaterial

I don't understand the logic that data is any less "real" in an electronic file than it is in a traditional format like a book.

[© tweed]

not for amaterial

I don't understand the logic that data is any less "real" in an electronic file than it is in a traditional format like a book.

it's not a difficult logic, you are capable of understanding it.

[Associate Justice PiT]

     The price of printing a book is about $1-2, so the minimal discount isn't terribly surprising.

[Brittain33]

     The price of printing a book is about $1-2, so the minimal discount isn't terribly surprising.

Right, all the costs of paying an author, marketing, securing permissions etc are still in play plus the ebook vendors take a cut. Printing and warehousing are a factor but not a major one.