Greed and Ebook Prices

This is a subject that I've written about before but I think it deserves attention. What is that subject? It's ebook prices.

Now, for this particular post I'm speaking primarily as a reader, not a writer. I think its a great thing that we authors are able to determine for ourselves what our prices will be and how much we want to make. However, I see prices that are so outrageous that "gouging the customer" comes to mind. I still think that $9.99 and up is too high for an ebook. Even $7.99 seems expensive. I mean, really, I can go down to Powell's bookstore and find a paperback of the same book or a similar book for the same price. So I think to myself when I'm browsing Amazon's Kindle store: "Why on earth would I pay this price for an ebook?" And usually what happens is that I pass on the book and look elsewhere.

I have no plans to charge such high prices for my own books. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not against making money, (else I wouldn't have started my own publishing company) and I do not like the whole $0.99 ebook craze either. After all, writing a full length novel is a tremendous amount of work. I think it should be more than a buck. However, there aren't the costs associated with ebooks that there are with paper books. So why charge so much? I think the the root problem is greed. Greed is why the economy collapsed and greed, I believe, is why I see these outrageous prices in ebooks. People will often try to get away with charging whatever they think people will pay and legally they are within their rights. However, ethically I think it's wrong to charge $12.99 or $17.99 for something that can be bought as a physical product cheaper or for the same price.

But that's how people are these days. It's all about the money which is why the world sucks sometimes.