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
Authors do often have better royalties on e-books but that’s not really the reason that the cost is so close. In practice the cost is so close simply because people are willing to pay it. E-books have much lower overhead costs than a physical book however they also come with a high degree of convenience. Which makes people willing to pay a similar price as they would for a physical book. I have a few hundred books on my tablet and can get more nearly instantly anywhere there’s wifi. This convenience has a value that some people (myself included) are willing to pay for.
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