Eli5: Why is the purchase price of e-books basically the same as print.

Question

I would expect e-books to be considerably cheaper than printed books, since there are reduced distribution and production costs. Yet the retail price often doesn’t match those savings versus an e-book. I would hope that the authors royalties would reflect some of the savings in production costs.

In: Economics

Answer 1

I think most e-books are indeed cheaper than printed books. But the price isn’t about what it takes to produce them, it’s about what price people are willing to pay.