Publisher’s Weekly writer Rachel Deahl wrote an excellent article “The eBook Pricing Conundrum” in which the murky eBook pricing procedures of leading publishers are taken to task. Read the story here. Deahl sets out the twitchy mathematics publishers and resellers use to justify their high prices on eBooks, and shows what shaky ground they’re on. I get a kick out of the publishing source that blames the high price of eBooks on (can you believe this?) the greedy and overpriced AUTHORS. What a crock, yah?
The truth is, people who read eBooks are tech-savvy enough to know when they’re being ripped off, and that’s what Amazon and the old publishing industry are doing, pocketing the costs that formerly went to the manufacturing, shipping and storage of actual paperbacks and hard covers. The rest of us understand that this is the digital age. One digital file = limitless copies. Internet = virtually free shipping.
Wait until everyone figures out that eBook resellers like Amazon.com are not much different from Google in the end. I mean, you have to know the title you’re looking for or at least the name of the author before you have to ‘search’ for the product you want. These publishers and eBook resellers should be playing fairly and finding ways to remain relevant. They’re this close to becoming simple search engines dependent on adsense for profits.
