Vol 134

I know I complain about the price of ebooks all the time, but let's go further into that.

Back before I bought a Kindle, I had the kindle program downloaded on both my ipod and PC. A lot of novels that I read run $7.99 in paperback format when I buy them from Barnes and Noble, and when I would purchased them on Amazon, I would pay about $5.99. Now, the prices are equal. It pisses me off because I paid over $100 for the ereader, yet I still pay the same amount for the book. Therefore, I actually spent more money when I was originally trying to save.

And what do I get for it?

I get the book instantly. That's a plus, but is that a big enough plus. I also save trees and space. That's another plus, but still, is it plus enough? Sometimes it feels like it is, but other times it doesn't.

Right now, I'm not happy I'm paying the same amount for an ebook that I pay for a physical copy. I could actually buy it used from someone for a penny. I feel cheated. Then there's the fact that amazon will sell the hard copy book for less than the Kindle edition. WTH man! Other times, like when I buy self-published books and I only pay $1 or $2, I feel satisfied.

There have been plenty of arguments between customers and publishers about the price of ebooks costing so much but publishers spending less to actually produce the novel, and publishers will say that's not true, and even if it does cost a bit less, they don't sell as many copies of the ebook as the hard copy, therefore, they have to make up the money some way. B.S. Publishers also complain about books being pirated. *rolls eyes* When you put anything on the internet, it's going to be pirated. It's as simple as that. The question is, should they charge so much for the ebook to make up for a lost that was guaranteed from the beginning? Hey! Here's an almost-not-really-solution. How about dropping the price of those ebooks that are even with the hard copies by a few bucks (depending on how much the hard copy cost) and maybe more people will buy the novel when they first look at it instead of looking for a book and saying, "Oh hell no!" to the price, then turning around to find a torrent for it. That's what I would do Just saying. But it doesn't matter what the publishers decide because stupid fans like me will still buy the books...a third of the time.

You know, I want to boycott over priced ebooks. I mean, it's not like I have the same privileges with the ebooks as I have with my paper copies. I can't loan it to anyone who highlight it (although most ereaders allow you to highlight text, it's not the same). It's actually more time consuming locating pages. But, will I boycott them? It depends. I'm a little obsessive over some books and will pay for them regardless of the price if I want it terribly, and my utter dislike of library books cuts that option. But if it's not a novel of a series I already read I would probably not purchase it.  

So really? Am I being scammed by publishers who feel they should charge more for ebooks so they can recooperate the money or am I breaking even and/or getting off?