And ebooks _should_ be priced less, because they are less. You give up the right to resell, to lend, to giveaway. You can’t put it on a shelf in a collection to look pretty.

You do get some benefits, but some are overrated. I can carry my library on one device. Whoopie. How often have you wanted to do that with your real library? I tend to read a handful of books at the same time, and when they are done I don’t look at them again for at least a year or two.

I buy books for the Kindle because the savings per book are worth giving up some of the benefits of paper books. The low price also encourages me to impulse buy. I’ve spent more on books in the last year then I ever have before. Why can’t publishers see this as a good thing?

As a reader, I am heartened to see a more open and flexible market, not one artificially driven solely by the profit in e-readers. So I do not understand the comment about “cash cows to be milked.”

Under the new formula, Macmillan will, as I understand it, make make less money from Kindle books than at present, but under a sustainable business model. That has to be good news: for publishers, yes, but also for readers–there will continue to be good books, with appropriate rewards for writing and publishing them.

How much should electronic versions of a book cost? 50%? More? Less? I don’t know. As a reader I can say, 10% sounds terrific. Or, how about free? Great!

Now just find those first-rate writers and publishers who do not need to eat.

Libraries and used books are terrific, but the key to the reading eco-system is a healthy and vibrant market among ALL the players (authors, publishers, retailers, readers).

Seriously, I haven’t seen them refereed to as e books in about a decade.

He really must be doing a ton of research about them :rofl:

And speaking of money, I doubt that I’ll be spending any of mine on new MacMillan titles. I’ll wait for them to start popping up in the used book market.

So Mr. Sargent – how much money will you and your authors make from me then?

Let’s hear it for “the Tor.com community”, everyone. Yay.

:0)