Food for thought
A new Amazon Kindle 2: $360
A book that I would read (picked at random), Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert (published 1969): Paperback, $7.99
Same book, but for the Kindle: $7.19
Difference: 80 cents.
Assume, if this price difference was the norm between a physical paper book (printing, distribution, materials) and virtual e-book (no printing, cheap distribution, no materials), for a book written 40 years ago (!), then let us think about this…
I would have to read 450 books purchased through the Kindle to make up the cost difference between the Kindle version and the paperback version.
I read about 1 book every 2 weeks.
450 books at 2 weeks a book, equals 6300 days. Or 900 weeks, or 225 months, or 4.3 years.
The value proposition is not there. A book should be a fraction of the price to offset the cost of a ebook reader… and that experience should be universal for any book I may want to read. Distribution costs for the publisher and Amazon are almost nil, there are no physical material costs associated with the book, and there is NO marketing associated with the book. The royalties for the book are going to the Herbert family, not the original author (thanks copyright law).
So why only 80 cents? Why not 4 bucks?
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