Digital Home Thoughts: e-Book Prices Go Up. Will Sales Follow?

"When digital editions have cost more, or have been delayed until after the release of hardcover versions, these raucous readers have organized impromptu boycotts and gone to the Web sites of Amazon and Barnes & Noble to leave one-star ratings and negative comments for those books and their authors."

Just how much is a book worth? A thousand pictures? A thousand, thousand pictures? If publishers have any say, e-books will start costing up to $14.99. It is understandable, given the current economic climate, and CES demonstrating that there is a different e-book reader for every person. Readers do not seem to agree. If the music industry is to be any gauge, sales are going to suffer. When prices on iTunes went variable and hot songs started going for $1.29, sales slowed. The music industry claims that the market is maturing. Maybe the e-book market will mature earlier than expected as well! As an aside, there is one thing I need to get off my chest. While I will not dispute that there can be great value in books, I disagree with the concept that since e-books cost next to nothing to produce, they should cost next to nothing to buy. The cost of manufacturing something should only help determine the lowest possible price, not the value or selling price of something. If I were only to be paid the actual cost (in kilocalories?) of sitting at a desk, starting at a computer screen doing my job, it would be a pity pittance. Books are worth more than a few pennies. But are they really worth $14.99? How much would you pay for the latest Harry Potter, Twilight, or one of my favourites, "Where the Sidewalk Ends"?