The Costs and Pricing of E-Books

The other day I discovered that the first volume of my four volume prayerbook had become water damaged with coffee.  It was a stupid mistake.  Replacing the volume, which is still technically useable, would run $35, so I'm not too eager to shell out the money at this point.  However, I thought it might be a good time to check out CPH's prayerbook Treasury of Daily Prayer.  Happily I found that the price for this single volume work was $30, hardback (It's on sale at the moment.) Then I saw they had an e-pub version.  Great!  I own a NOOK, so this could be an option.  Then I looked at the price.  It was $19 more!  What?  You've got to be kidding!  A paper copy is cheaper than an electronic copy?  How does that work?  Well, I guess there are a number of things I didn't understand in the new world of printing and books, especially the costs associated with e-books.  Even though storage is considered virtually, it comes down to bandwidth, which costs.  And there are other expenses as well.  If you are curious, as I was, I found a short article that helped me understand.  I'm still not happy with it all, but hopeful that one day these e-books will be more cost effective.  See: "What Making an E-Book Costs, Publisher Responds."

Comments

said…
I suspect much of the cost comes down to copyright/intellectual property/author royalties, Donald. Given the relative expense of e-books as compared with actual books, I listened to an interesting discussion on the radio down here recently. They were talking about the need to modify the law so that the data people store in "clouds" - books, music etc. - can be willed to others upon death. Apparently at the moment that is not possible. So we could soon have "virtual inheritances"?
February 13, 2013 at 9:33:00 PM PST
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