Amazon eBook prices to rise as iPad launch looms

that price is disgusting! why would i pay as much or if not even more for the e-book rather than the real thing?

the only thing i can is happening is the illegal file sharing of these e-book, just like overpriced music

they should be charging well under what you can buy the paperback for ie £3 or less

By kingct on 1 Apr 2010

Overpriced e-books will get even more expensive. Shame.

By Lomskij on 1 Apr 2010

Alastair Rayment

Many consumers, like myself, don't like books that require cutting down forests and then are shipped back and forth around the worlds (printers to retailers); then often only read once and dumped in landfill. We will get our E books somehow and someone will profit handsomely from it, but not these silly dying publishers it seems.

By arayment on 1 Apr 2010

That boat already sailed!

Most book titles are unavailable eBook format or are vastly overpriced. However most book titles are floating around the internet as text or PDF. If I can't buy my favourite paperback, then I'll download it. Remember these are all books I've already bought once in paperback. I don't see paying more for the eBook than the paper copy. If publishers don't get that through their thick heads, then they will have a problem.
I would suggest to any author, that they ensure their publishing deal includes the rights to electronically distribute themselves. Since I would be happy giving the author £5 for a plain text file via PayPal, but wouldn't contemplate paying £12 for a DRM'd copy from the publisher.

By cheysuli on 1 Apr 2010

History repeating itself

Seems this industry has not learnt (learned?) any lessons from the music industry.

If the industry continues to antagonise their customers, they will have less of them.

By mviracca on 1 Apr 2010

Almost as soon as....

a book comes out in eBook format, it will be available for free on the web.

Except for perhaps the very obscure stuff.

But let's not get carried away. The number of people who read books is a very small market. We're not seeing the birth of another iTunes here.

By Lacrobat on 1 Apr 2010

Wow

Quote: often only read once and dumped in landfill

Who sends books to landfill?

Insanity. At worst it could be used to light the fire, or in desperation as Toilet Roll in an emergency?

Then again maybe there should be a worldwide network of shops stores and auction sites that could be used to resell said discarded books? Oh wait a minute..There are!

By Gindylow on 1 Apr 2010

Wow

Quote: often only read once and dumped in landfill

Who sends books to landfill?

Insanity. At worst it could be used to light the fire, or in desperation as Toilet Roll in an emergency?

Then again maybe there should be a worldwide network of shops stores and auction sites that could be used to resell said discarded books? Oh wait a minute..There are!

By Gindylow on 1 Apr 2010

I was a complete convert to e-books and love my reader.
However, I am still buying paper books because they are cheaper (often as much as 50%) than in ePub format.
I now rely mainly on Project Gutenberg for my e-book needs, and regular books for more recent publications.
Until publishers drop the price for e-books to around a fiver, or give them away with hardbacks, I see no way that they will ever hit the mainstream.
As cheysuli mentions above, there are loads of books available in either .txt, .html and pdf formats floating around on the web. There is also software like calibre and even free websites which will automatically convert these formats to epub. Sure, the odd line-break will be wrong, but the results are pretty good.

By roadshowuk on 1 Apr 2010