I don't sell my books, I don't lend my books, and I don't donate or otherwise give away my books (unless I accidentally buy a duplicate copy). I do, however, buy every paper book I own in hardcover, when available, and usually in first edition. That's due to nothing more than personal preference. Of course, having plenty of shelf space doesn't hurt. 
I am very concerned with the content of my books as well, and that content often includes maps and artwork. In many instances, these are as integral to the story as the writing itself. The last hardcover I bought, The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson, is filled with artistic sketches belonging to one of the central characters and a large number of maps. These are spaced throughout the book and include amazing, full color maps on the inside covers.. They are all part of the story, and these things just don't work very well on the NOOK.
But all of that is incidental to my belief as to why ebooks are worth less than physical books. Yes, the story is the most important part of the book, but, ultimately, a license to read that story should not cost as much as outright ownership of it, in any instance.
In regards to the discussion that an ebook of over 1,000 pages should cost more, I disagree. As I stated earlier, The Way of Kings is over 1,000 pages long. It is a story of over 400,000 words, and with the maps, sketches, dust cover and inside cover artwork, must have cost a good deal to produce. The ebook cost $14.99 on its release date, when I ordered the hardcover at a little over $15. It has recently been dropped to $12.99. Most of these large ebooks don't cost $20.
xamier wrote:
sam_ann wrote:
xamier wrote:Come on people, the E book is worth exactly what people will pay and the owner will accept.
If you don't accept the price, don't buy it. If you can't live another day without it do buy it.
I fail to see where the problem is. If e books cost more then people are willing to pay, the market will correct it or e books will go the way of the Dodo bird.
Have a nice evening.
But I don't want ebooks to go the way of the dodo bird!
Completely apart from an individual's financial concerns, a lot of people are emotionally and pragmatically invested in an ebook future. I for one want it to succeed as a mainstream book format and this painful, drawn out price wrangling in the market isn't making that more likely.
I don't want E book to go away either and I doubt the people who sell them want them to go away either. I think the market will settle the price and I hope people will get over the idea that digital content is worth less then DTB content.
I agree with your first statement, with the possible exception of MacMillan. I can't help but get the feeling they think they can hold back the tide of digitization by main force.
As for people changing their views on the worth of digital content, hoping for that is a bit at odds with your trust in the market. After all, the market is everyone. People's decisions on a product's worth are highly individualized and based on many factors, not just content. Every person's threshold is different, and there's nothing wrong with that. If capitalism is allowed to run its course then the price that meets the threshold for the most consumers while still allowing the supplier to remain in business and make profit is the price the market settles at.
Unfortunately, capitalism isn't running its course. It's being manipulated by price fixing. Obviously this doesn't affect you or anyone else whose threshold matches the prices being demanded, and that's great. But for the other consumers who have different circumstances than you, price fixing is taking away their choices. Maybe the prices would naturally settle at a level more in line with what you think ebooks are worth than what someone else thinks they're worth. That would be totally ok, though I think the likely outcome would be somewhere in the middle. But we won't find out until publishers stop cheating, which is all the Agency model is. In the meantime, people for whom ebook demand is inelastic feel powerless, and no one likes that.
@Nallia - Perfect example of why I also do not believe ebooks are worth as much as DTBs. The Way of Kings is the first DTB I've purchased since I got my nook back in May. It was for the same reason; all of the artwork, maps, etc inside the book as well as the fantastic cover art.
I've been extremely disappointed with a few ebooks because the maps were impossible to see in the ebook version and that takes a lot away from the story.
sygram wrote:@Nallia - Perfect example of why I also do not believe ebooks are worth as much as DTBs. The Way of Kings is the first DTB I've purchased since I got my nook back in May. It was for the same reason; all of the artwork, maps, etc inside the book as well as the fantastic cover art.
I've been extremely disappointed with a few ebooks because the maps were impossible to see in the ebook version and that takes a lot away from the story.
I've only had my NOOK for several weeks. Taliesin goes everywhere I go, and seems quite happy with that, though. Having said that, I understand that you wanted *THIS PARTICULAR BOOK* in hardcopy. (To you) This book was more valuable in hardcopy than in e-format. I don't follow the logic that *all* DTB books are more valuable.
I guess I'm agreeing with fran; it is the content which I find valuable.
(I do purge books, donate to the library, occasionally lend them to friend who I trust implicitly. I keep the books that I really loved; I don't have every book I've ever owned. We've moved 6 times in 10 years. Keeping everything isn't really an option for me, and *that* was the appeal of the NOOK. I could have all those books, including some that I might have kept if packing hadn't been a concern - without taking up any shelf space.)
I guess I would like to see ebooks priced lower than trade paperbacks, and I did expect it. But I don't see it as a VALUE difference. We are just trained, by years of experience, to get a physical thing when we buy a book. With ebooks, we just don't. Therefore we *feel* like they should cost less.
I admit, I would have trouble paying $29.99 for any ebook - although the only books I've paid list price for in recent history are the final two installments of Harry Potter. I always wait until trade paperbacks come out; most of my books have been bought from the "Bargain Book" table or Half-Price Books.
(I need to disclaim: I've noted elsewhere that my husband is a professional chef with shelves of cookbooks - they don't get purged 
- and we buy those in hardcopy and some have been bought withing weeks of release and were $$$. They aren't mine, though. He has convinced himself that they are a professional expense.)
Ya_Ya wrote:
sygram wrote:@Nallia - Perfect example of why I also do not believe ebooks are worth as much as DTBs. The Way of Kings is the first DTB I've purchased since I got my nook back in May. It was for the same reason; all of the artwork, maps, etc inside the book as well as the fantastic cover art.
I've been extremely disappointed with a few ebooks because the maps were impossible to see in the ebook version and that takes a lot away from the story.
I've only had my NOOK for several weeks. Taliesin goes everywhere I go, and seems quite happy with that, though.
I guess I'm agreeing with fran; it is the content which I find valuable.
(I do purge books, donate to the library, occasionally lend them to friend who I trust implicitly. I keep the books that I really loved; I don't have every book I've ever owned. We've moved 6 times in 10 years. Keeping everything isn't really an option for me, and *that* was the appeal of the NOOK. I could have all those books, including some that I might have kept if packing hadn't been a concern - without taking up any shelf space.)
I guess I would like to see ebooks priced lower than trade paperbacks, and I did expect it. But I don't see it as a VALUE difference. We are just trained, by years of experience, to get a physical thing when we buy a book. With ebooks, we just don't. Therefore we *feel* like they should cost less.
I admit, I would have trouble paying $29.99 for any ebook - although the only books I've paid list price for in recent history are the final two installments of Harry Potter. I always wait until trade paperbacks come out; most of my books have been bought from the "Bargain Book" table or Half-Price Books.
(I need to disclaim: I've noted elsewhere that my husband is a professional chef with shelves of cookbooks - they don't get purged
As I said, that is incidental to the reason I believe ebooks do not share the same monetary value as paper books. Of course the content is the most important part of a book, in any format. The content is, after all, why I read in the first place. However, there is nothing that can ever convince me that a license to read something is of the same monetary value as true ownership of that same item.
