Don't get me wrong. I love my nook - I think it is the best electronic purchase I've ever made. But I thought by now, eBooks would have come down in price. I was checking on one I wanted to buy on B&N.com, and I noticed that the eBook version costs more than the paperback.

WTF?

I can certainly see spending $10-$15 on an acid-free middleoftheroad version...I don't know what it is called in the industry, but it isn't a hardcover and it isn't a MMP. But to spend more on something that doesn't even really cost the publisher any materials?

Anybody with some inside knowledge as to why eBooks are still as much if not more than paperbacks? Or is it just because people are willing to pay for them.

3/24/2014 8:34:15 PM

1) Don't want to piss off brick and mortar stores that still sell a lot of their books
2) They don't want Amazon to control the industry
3) Profit margin

3/24/2014 9:21:51 PM

I think you'd be surprised how cheap it is to print a book. It may cost several tens of thousands dollars to print 1 copy, but it's pretty much just pennies per copy after that. Most publishers print at least several hundred thousand books so it breaks down to just a few dimes in cost per unit.

It's the same with lots of other media that has moved to digital. Albums on iTunes still cost the same as CDs, movies downloads cost the same as DVDs, etc.

3/24/2014 9:40:13 PM

Quote :

"I can certainly see spending $10-$15 on an acid-free middleoftheroad version...I don't know what it is called in the industry, but it isn't a hardcover and it isn't a MMP."

Trade Paperback.

I've wondered the same thing...books, unless they're really good, don't have the re-entertainment factor of something like a CD. Then again I feel the same way about movies, which is why I don't own many.

At this point I really only use my nook for a cheap web tablet and for my Economist subscription. Have a handful of ebooks, mostly ones I've gotten cheap on sale, but haven't actually read a whole one yet. I'm kind of a paper traditionalist.

3/25/2014 12:45:50 AM

Ya, it's always bothered me how there isn't much of a discount for something that is completely virtual and often locked by DRM. I try to remind myself that the publisher and author still get their cut, and so it's not too bad, but that doesn't help too much.

For what it's worth, I've found that some authors are putting books out under creative commons licenses or selling books DRM-free. Folks like Cory Doctorow and The Humble Bundle and Machine of Death. Oh, don't forget The Gutenberg Project.

Click All the Links!

3/25/2014 8:12:23 AM

I love my kindle. I've got one of the older e-ink versions and the battery lasts for weeks.
While there are a few drawbacks to not having a hardcopy book I think the pros far outweigh the cons.

I always packed a dozen or so books for vacation. I may have only read 3 of them, but anything on my "to read" list came with me. Now I just take the Kindle, its already loaded with all those books.

Its lightweight, lighter than most of my physical books. My brother's an avid hiker and uses his on the trail all the time. He can charge it before leaving and it carries his trail maps, outdoor guides, and his fictional reading as well.

I'll never lose my books. Everything is available to me through the cloud, anything I bought on Amazon stays with my account so even if my kindle is lost or stolen, I can just download my library onto the next one.


And when you talk about the costs of books. Almost all of it is in the production of the book. For the author, this means not just paying them what they're owed as the rights holder, but also for the costs associated with producing the book (travel, research, etc.), though this may be just for the "good" authors. I'm sure the ones that churn out cheap paperback fiction don't ever leave their couch to investigate the places and people they write about.
Then there's also the publisher side costs. Editors, copy editors, promotion, marketing, etc. and at each stop on the line everyone's grabbing their 20% profit.
By the end of the process, the actual costs to print a physical book is only a small fraction of the price.

3/25/2014 9:25:21 AM

Switching from my Nook to a Kindle. Grrrrrrr DRM. I paid for every book on my Nook, why can't I carry those books over to the Kindle? Legally? I realize that the DRM can be stripped and the file converted, but I paid for those files.

7/13/2016 1:11:54 AM

Why wouldn't you just park your old Nook on the shelf like you would any other hard copy book you've read? I understand the frustration though.

7/13/2016 9:28:47 AM

The Kindle store has daily deals on ebooks. This past month Slaughterhouse-Five, The Big Short, and several others were $2.00.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ebookdeals/top/?sort=top&t=month

Don't know anything about nook's selection.

7/14/2016 8:20:29 AM

i use https://www.bookbub.com/home/ to get all sorts of free garbage books

7/14/2016 8:58:50 AM

i use the library to get ebooks for free for a limited period and then I read them (I can even disconnect from wifi so i don't lose them if i take longer than the library's term). Just like a physical book.

7/14/2016 11:12:10 PM

Quote :

"(I can even disconnect from wifi so i don't lose them if i take longer than the library's term)"

I feel like a dumbass for not thinking of this.

7/15/2016 10:52:49 AM

Quote :

"i use the library to get ebooks for free for a limited period and then I read them (I can even disconnect from wifi so i don't lose them if i take longer than the library's term). Just like a physical book."

Yep. Convenient as hell. I still prefer real books, and still buy them and/or check them out from the library, but being able to sign in to their web site, borrow a book, and download it to the kindle within just a few minutes is great. (Though my local library's e-book selection is somewhat limited, which is annoying.)

[Edited on July 16, 2016 at 2:16 AM. Reason : p]

7/16/2016 2:15:45 AM