The economics of ebooks
Sometimes I wonder whether I'm cut out for a technological world. I'm a bit of a fuddy-duddy who is unlikely to upgrade to Windows 7 until Service Pack 2 is out (though I did install Ubuntu Linux on one of my old laptops at the weekend, and I'm astonished how much faster it boots up than it did under Windows Vista!).
As readers of this blog may recall, a bit over a year ago I splashed out on a Sony Reader, and I've been working my way through a largish collection of ebooks I've bought from Baen Books over the last ten years or so, but today my flabber has been ghasted. I got an email from Waterstones advertising, among other things, Dara O Briain's new book, "Tickling the English", which piqued my interest. I was surprised, to say the least, to find that the RRP is £18.99 (hardback), and Waterstones are offering the ebook at 20% off - £15.19 (which is still a hell of a price to pay for a collection of binary digits which you can't sell on the second hand book market). However, as I looked down the page I noticed they're offering the hardback version for £11.79. Hello? Where's the incentive to save a tree here? Am I being unreasonably obtuse, or does the pricing of ebooks make no sense at all?
As readers of this blog may recall, a bit over a year ago I splashed out on a Sony Reader, and I've been working my way through a largish collection of ebooks I've bought from Baen Books over the last ten years or so, but today my flabber has been ghasted. I got an email from Waterstones advertising, among other things, Dara O Briain's new book, "Tickling the English", which piqued my interest. I was surprised, to say the least, to find that the RRP is £18.99 (hardback), and Waterstones are offering the ebook at 20% off - £15.19 (which is still a hell of a price to pay for a collection of binary digits which you can't sell on the second hand book market). However, as I looked down the page I noticed they're offering the hardback version for £11.79. Hello? Where's the incentive to save a tree here? Am I being unreasonably obtuse, or does the pricing of ebooks make no sense at all?