Should ebooks cost more or less than print books? Should they have more or less restrictions? I think that publishers of both ebooks and print books need to pay attention to what has happened in the video game industry.
Digital download services like Steam and Origin offer games at deep discounts, as much as 80-90% off the release price, with smaller discounts on newer titles. In contrast, discounts on console games for Xbox or PS3 are minimal for long periods of time after release.
What accounts for the difference? The XBox and PS3 games can, for the most part, be resold. Not for what they cost originally, in most cases, but they do retain some value, sometimes as high as 40-50% of list price if sold within the first year. In contrast, download services for the PC like Steam and Origin gives you much better pricing but lock you in to a single account. Once the game is activated, it cannot be transferred or refunded.
There are strong parallels in the book world. Print books can be lent to whomever for as long as you want, they can be resold, and they are therefore inherently more valuable, at least for now. In contrast, ebooks are more convenient, like digitally downloadable games, although both require a periodic and ideally a fast internet connection. Ebooks were initially cheaper as well, prior to price-fixing attempts by Apple and various publishers. This made up somewhat for the fact that ebooks cannot be re-sold or transferred to another account, or even lent, except for the occasional "one time, two week loan" that is more a marketing gimmick than a useful feature. But prices have been slowly creeping back up for titles from major publishers, aside from the occasional sale.
I'm not suggesting that the best solution is making ebooks free, or even $0.99. There has been a recent influx of free or very cheap books on sites like Amazon, and although that is great for a the few authors who make it to the Top 100 lists, the vast majority of such books are poorly edited garbage. Still, there should be a more reasonable pricing structure for ebooks, perhaps 40-50% of the cost of a print book. This would reflect the reduced value due to loss of lending rights and loss of resale rights.
Will the book publishing industry learn its lessons and adapt in time? Time will tell. In the meantime, we as consumers should be cautious about unthinkingly supporting unreasonable pricing for ebooks because of their convenience and portability.
