eBooks and Other Publishing Enigmas

My Kindle is one of my favorite possessions.  Especially now that the airlines accept that using one during takeoff and landing will not cause an aircraft to veer wildly off course.  And I've enjoyed some amazing authors through it.



Angella Graff
Curse of the Lion's Heart
The Awakening (The Judas Curse)




Rachel Smith
Night of the Squirrels: Dawn of the Interns
&
Night of the Squirrels: Day of the Robots
Comedy/horror trilogy about the Squirrel Apocalypse.  C'mon, Rachel!  Where's the third???









Grant Arboro
Cracking Up








And lots more, but I want to finish my blog post today...  I should make a list.  I'm good at lists...

But this is one place where I believe the traditional publishing houses have it not just wrong, but spectacularly, catastrophically, business-crushingly wrong.

I understand a lot goes into publishing a quality piece of work.  I've been through the process.  And a lot of people are involved.  Not for me, but maybe someday.  But.

But.

A portion of the cost of a paperback and/or hardback is the materials.  And the cost of printing.  That's why a hardback costs more than a paperback.

I understand this concept.

So why does an eBook cost almost as much as the paperback if it comes from a traditional publisher?  Why aren't they going for volume?  At least Amazon is on the right path with the Kindle Matchbook concept.  That is, if you buy the print copy, you get the eBook for free.

Great.

But when a paperback is $7.32 and an eBook is $6.59 -- something is very, very wrong.  Sorry, Mr. King, I know you need to keep getting richer, but seriously...

Maybe this is one of the reasons the traditional publishers are struggling.  Simple economics.

Of course, by this reasoning, I should be selling all of my books for $0.99 on Kindle.

True.

But my vanity and pride take over.  I'd rather have people not read Workshop 'Til You Drop at $3.99 than not read it at $0.99...