Without the physical media (paper) of the traditional type of book, it is always rational to argue that its electronic counterpart should be priced lower. RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization recently changed its retail price policy on its e-Books.
With the price of e-books still a hot topic, the nonprofit research organization RAND Corp. has changed the retail price on all of its e-books to $9.95 each. The director of publications and creative services, Jane Ryan, said RAND’s production, distribution and freight costs are lower for e-books, and “we want to pass these savings on to the public. Given the timeliness of our research, we want to make our work quickly available on multiple platforms, including smart phones.” RAND had previously based its e-book pricing on the retail price of print editions.
Marketing director John Warren said, “The economics of e-book distribution are different than print, where the cost of printing, distribution and returns factor into the price paid by consumers. Color charts and a greater number of pages, for example, drive up the cost of print-on-demand, but are not a factor in electronic books.”
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6662061.html
This is certainly a positive move for both the publishers and the readers, although many people will expect a more aggressive lowering of the price. With the prosperous market gain of various e-Book readers, like Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader Digital Book, it is almost certain that more cheap or even free contents are going to land on these devices very soon. The only question now remains is: what is really the affordable price of an e-Book (non-academic) for you?
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