Many eBooks are cheaper than paperbacks & many are free to download. Look at the economics of the system & you’ll see the price inefficiencies woven throughout the pricing mechanism.
Here are some very important consequences of the internet & eBooks:
1) The publisher’s old standby of the no, or very little, royalty cost book business has been devastated by the existence of sites like Project Gutenberg. Now, instead of buying a copy of Plato’s Dialogs in paperback format, just download it for free at the Plato page on gutenberg.org!
2) Downloaded eBooks have a moderately high cost of creation, but a near zero cost of distribution. The distribution expenses of server storage & electronic marketplace are a high barrier of entry, but ultimately amortize over millions of downloaded eBooks.
3) There is an ongoing fight over the pricing of eBook versions of Best Seller books.
See Amazon.com: The Battle of $9.99, How Apple, Amazon, and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight (Kindle Single) eBook. A $0.99 eBook on a part of this war!
4) The fact that places like Amazon, Barns & Noble, and others have “Discount Books of the Day/Month” and other pricing schemes & the eBook pricing bounces all over the map as the sellers attempt to maximize sales & profits. (Think airplane seats & the idea of “Yield Management” and you should get the picture.)
Even so, over the years a lot of things have changed the industry, the publishers and ultimately the end users: readers.
So to answer the question, “Are ebooks really cheaper now?”, you have to read our earlier article here: Why Are E-books More Expensive Than Printed Books?
Yet bear in mind, that article was written and compiled in 2013.
In recent years, it is relatively cheaper. And to make things easier to compare, I will list it in points.
- Read Amazon books for FREE
- How to Buy Kindle Books For Those Living Outside US
- Amazon FreeTime Unlimited (Unlimited ebooks, apps and TV programs for kids)
And lastly not forgetting, we have FREE book swaps in Singapore.
So on an ending note, e-books might be cheaper. It depends on where you are getting it from and if you have the promo links to get the better, cheaper rates for your reading pleasure.
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