It's not about production costs, though, is it? If it were, music CDs would cost less than £1.50
Which is exactly my point, Wendy. And DVDs. We're being ripped off with all of them. There's no way that production costs and a reasonable profit margin add up to what we get fleeced for.
But e-books in particular seem to me to be a bit of a rip-off, as there's really no 'physical' entity there that could justify charging upwards of £10.
The price of books (not to mention shipping costs and taxes!) is getting prohibitive. $9 for a new release sounds pretty good in comparison.
This surprises me. I've always thought we were living in an era of cheap books. I can get most of the paperbacks I'm looking for new on Amazon from an average price of £5-£7 and you can get cheaper still if you go second-hand - average price around £3 (including P&P).
Amazon is increasingly introducing free P&P for books even as low as £5, so if you don't mind waiting a few days longer for delivery it seems pretty cheap to me.
I tend not to buy many hardbacks, but the average new price on Amazon is about level with an e-book at £9 or so. Again, second-hand much cheaper. I've ordered second-hand from Amazon sellers at that £3 all inclusive price and had a hardback delivered, now and then, when I was expecting a paperback.
These days I tend to get most of my books at charity shops, so my average price paid is about 50p. Which is definitely a good deal. <G> But I increasingly go for the second-hand option on Amazon, too, because I've never really been let down and most of my purchases look brand new anyway.
LabRat
