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Bound Books or eBooks: Price or Sensation?

by Marco Gustafsson on Mar 21, 2010

There is currently an issue over the relative cost of regular bound books and their digital equivalents. Many feel that eBooks should be priced cheaper than they are now, although an analysis of the relative costs of the two do not bear this out. Were eBooks to become too inexpensive, it could spell the end of the regular book industry along with the social and economic problems that could entail. The expansion of sales and demand for eBooks, readable on e-readers such as the Kindle and others, has given rise to questions of cost. Why are eBooks so expensive in comparison with the cost of paper books, given the fact that no raw materials are involved (i.e. paper, ink and bindings)? That will be answered shortly, but first, there is more to just cost when comparing the permanence of a genuine book with the transient pleasure of reading a digital file. The smell of fresh ink and the feel of genuine paper in your hands is, for many, worth more than the cost advantage to be gained by...Read More >>