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by jcanyc 4327 days ago
The movie ticket vs. book price example in the article above seems like it comes from the article below. This is a great read regarding the history of the paperback. I know this is a complex issue, but I really do feel Amazon is on the consumer's side. $15+ for a non-transferable ebook is ludicrous.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/12247/how-paperbacks-transfor...
2 comments
rwl 4327 days ago
> I really do feel Amazon is on the consumer's side. $15+ for a non-transferable ebook is ludicrous.

Hmm. I agree that that price is in many cases too high. But as you say, that's because ebooks are non-transferable. Is creating and selling the devices and marketplace that make those ebooks non-transferable also on the consumer's side?

Amazon could have adopted EPUB for the Kindle instead of making their own ebook formats, and they could have pushed for higher-priced-but-transferable ebooks without DRM. They haven't done either at any point. It looks to me like Amazon is only on the consumer's side when they can strongarm the consumer into spending more money at Amazon.

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helen842000 4326 days ago
$15+ isn't that ludicrous. For a fiction book sure, but what about a technical ebook? Something that saves a team of $150 per/hour developers multiple hours of work each - shouldn't that have value based pricing.

Amazon isn't just encouraging lower ebook pricing, they are actively penalising authors that try to sell books above this level. Try to sell something over that price and the revenue split flips to 70/30 in their favour! They are removing the choice.

To have such a huge retailer force authors into such a cheap price bracket really devalues the content and sets consumer expectations.

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