Although more and more consumers are becoming comfortable with digital books, many want to know why buying e-books are more expensive than buying the same book in paperback. An example of this is Michael Connelly’s recent legal thriller, “The Fifth Witness” receive more one star reviews on Amazon than five star reviews, in large part because of some annoyed reviewer’s response to its whopping $14.99 price tag.

 

Even as physical book sales such as paperbacks and hard covers fall, publishers’ fixed costs are coming under greater pressure. One area where publishers can cushion the blow to their industry is by keeping e-book prices higher. One New York publishing executive stated that the industry will not be in a good shape if e-book sales reach 99 cents in future.

 

If you do look, e-book prices on nationally bestselling books are higher today than they were a year ago. This is because the six major publishers have adopted a new pricing model, which is now known as “agency pricing”, which is also endorsed y Apple. Publishers are worried about the deeply discounted $9.99 digital price for best-sellers promoted by Amazon.com agreed to set the consumer prices of their digital titles. Under the above stated module, retailers act as the agent for each sale and take 30%, returning the other 70% to the publisher. This makes it impossible for the retailer to discount the price of the book without prior approval of the publisher.

 

Despite all this, publishers will inevitably face pressure from consumers over high prices for digital editions, as they might as well buy the hard cover or paperback editions.