Why are eBooks so freaking expensive? [View All]

[Greyskye]

The price point seems to be close to the same as paper books. I just saw a book recommended in another thread, and the poster said they were reading it on their Blackberry. So I went looking for it - $18 for an eBook! (http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/ebook/260477-ebook.htm). Why the hell are they charging so much for an eBook? If you take out the cost of materials, printing, and distribution (oil costs are causing this in particular to skyrocket), and factor in the whole 'remainders' debacle, you'd think that an eBook would be considerably cheaper, and still maintain the revenue stream for the author and publisher.

Even most other eBooks I've seen are about the price of a paperback. I find it really hard to put down the same amount of money, and only have it live on a hard drive and in my cell phone, and not take a place in my (quite extensive!) library. When it lives there, I know that it will be read again - by a family member, a friend, or at the very least traded in at a used book store years from now. If it's in a digital format, I'm probably the only one who will ever read it.

Thanks to a now expired offer from Tor (http://tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=577) I was able to download over a dozen eBooks for free. I've been loving this, and have only read a couple 'real' books over the past few months. All the rest have been on my mobile device.

I know that there are some free e-libraries out there (http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm is one), but I'd really like to know why they are setting the price-points so damn high. It's as if they want this particular sales model to fail. :(