A Fair Price for eBooks?

There is a lot of discussion, with eBooks and eReaders in their infancy, of what constitutes a fair price for an eBook.

Large publishers, for whom printing is a small part of their cost compared to publicity, distribution and royalties, feel that eBooks should cost the same as “regular” printed books.

Small publishers, who pay a larger percentage of their costs for printing, think eBooks should be cheaper.

I am neither a large nor a small publisher, but a reader – in fact, an incessant reader. As such, no one has asked for my opinion, but I am presenting it anyway.

I like eBooks: they take up much less storage space, are easier to carry around (my little eReader holds hundreds), and are better for the environment. Despite these benefits, I am well aware of their deficiencies, and the fact that I am getting much less for my money.

If I buy a wonderful print book and want to re-read it 20 years from now, nothing will stop me from doing so. With an eBook, particularly now, with a dozen different formats around, chances are a book I buy today will not be readable 20 years from now.

Then there is sharing. If I enjoy a print book that I buy, I can pass it on to a friend when I am finished, or I can trade it at a used book store for another book. Not so an eBook. Thanks to DRM technology, the eBook will only work for me. If my friend wants to read it, she has to buy her own copy (unless I lend her my eReader as well, which presents obvious problems if all of my books are on there).

Are eBooks worthwhile? Absolutely. Are they worth the price of a new, hardcover, print book? Not to me, and not, I suspect, to many others.

Amazon appears to realize this, though their standard $9.99 price for Kindle eBooks may only be short-term, a way to draw people to a new technology. As they only sell in the U.S., their effect is limited.

Sony, the other big eBook company at the moment, tends to have slightly higher prices, though still below what the publishers want them to charge.

The major publishers need to get on board. If they want the public to invest in eBooks, they have to consider what the reader is getting, and price accordingly.