Ripp(off)ing Yarns

As a follow-up to my last blog and to an earlier one on e-books, I have another tale from The Wall Street Journal, which is throwing a rotten mince pie in the face of all those looking forward to their new Kindle this Christmas.

In a recent article, E-Book Readers Face Sticker Shock, the Journal reported that prices of e-books are now rivalling, and in some cases exceeding, those of hard copies. This is the result of a publishers’ price-fixing agreement – in cahoots with Apple – that has barred retailers from discounting new e-books on pain of being cut out of the publishers’ delivery route.

It’s all a bit distasteful, if you ask me. It’s not just the bar on discounting or even the price hike over real books; it’s that this is coupled with what, logically, must be a huge drop in the publishers’ own costs. Some of the outlay remains – editors, copy editors, for example – but e-books do away with the main cost of publishing a book: the actual printing of the physical item. They are having their proverbial cake and gorging on it at the same time.

It’s also socially irresponsible. As much as I wince at the idea of trees being felled to print books that could be published electronically at little environmental cost, I still prefer the experience of holding a real book in my hands over perusing a piece of cold technology. I am sure there are many people who will choose the paper option over the electronic for aesthetic and tactile reasons alone; now they can add to their rationale the cost factor.

The point is made in the Journal article that most people are not going to pay $15 dollars for an e-book that they can source in paper form for $2 second-hand on Amazon.

I really hope this bites the scheming publishers in their collective arse. Blatant profiteering at any time leaves a bitter taste, but during such a dire economic period it strikes me as pretty bloody stupid as well. Have they not seen the likes of Borders and American Airlines going bust, to name but two of the recent big-name casualties?

That’s one hell of a devil-may-care attitude to be squeezing the buying public when all that’s left in them is the pips.

And on that sour note, I’d like to wish you all a very happy festive season and all the best for the coming year. See you in 2012.