One of my favourite hobby horses is the outrageous way ebook customers are treated because some publishers continue to attempt to protect their core business. Something has to be done and I was therefore all in agreement when I read Nik Fletcher’s post at nikr.org.
Right now, publishers are stinging – or as Fraser more succinctly puts it gouging– eBook customers. I completely understand that there’s costs involved to produce an eBook version of a work. However, when you’re no longer smashing together some (entirely physical) pulp, pressing ink onto it, and shipping it some place, the idea that a premium should apply simply fails logic. The idea of paying substantially more for a digital copy of the exact same text can only be one set up by a publishing house who’ll next year announce stagnant eBook sales – most likely as a result of people looking to buy digital texts thinking “Screw this, I’ll buy the paperback cheap” or resort to nefarious means.
Source via The Brooks Review