Readers Reject Overpriced E-Books

Last year, GalleyCat readers argued about publishing’s million dollar question: How do you price a digital book? Today, Booksquare dragged that controversy kicking and screaming into the new year.

The essay berated publishers for for overpricing e-books: “Selling this book, regardless of how sacred you hold your publishing windows, at $27.99 shows that you’re out of touch and clearly not understanding your audience … I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking you won’t be like the music industry. Too late. Already you’ve let Amazon force its vision of pricing on you.”

Last year, a few GalleyCat readers contributed their own theories about pricing. Bear Mountain Books wrote: “To get buyers in, they probably need to be in the range of 99 cent specials to somewhere around $3.50 (for more known authors?).”

Another reader noted: “Cerridwen Press and Ellora’s Cave started as ebook publishers and have now moved into print. Their ebooks are less than half the price of their trade paperbacks.” (Via Soft Skull Press)

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