Ushering in a New Era of Reading Since the first implementation of electronic books—more commonly known as digital books, e-readers, or e-books—there has been a widespread distrust of them by a majority of society. This apprehension towards e-books is baffling to those who view digital books as a revolutionary and helpful technological advancement. However, despite this sentiment spreading, e-books are still not currently the norm—print books are. Unlike how society has upgraded to indoor plumbing and electricity, to smart cars and microwaves, laptops and smartphones, it still remains entrenched in print books. Is that due to print being superior to the newly invented e-readers, or is it because society refuses and fears any more advancement
…show more content…
Because of this, digital books are actually fairly pricey because they still cost as much as a physical book that does require manual labor and resources. An article from Books Avenue, entitled Why Are E-books More Expensive Than Printed Books, examines this price gap and states that “e-books are indeed cheaper than physical books [because] it is cheaper to produce something virtual,” so why is this lower value not reflected in the actual price that consumers pay? According to the previous article, this is due to the providers of e-books needing to keep the price artificially inflated so that they meet the authors’ required commissions (Why Are E-books More Expensive Than Printed Books). This is because the required commissions are tied to the printed book’s price, not the e-book’s. This means that if a print book should and does cost $35 and the author is supposed to get fifty percent of the profits, then they would be getting $17.50 from each printed book. This means though that the author would still require that $17.50 from the sale of an e-book even though the cost of the e-book should only be about $15. This would put the company selling e-books at their actual value at a loss of $2.50. In order to avoid that overdraft, they must keep the price of the e-book inflated to the same $35 as the print book. Because print is the …show more content…
That can be true only depending on what type of book is being referenced. A simple 200-page novel is definitely less weight than an e-reader device, but again, remember that this device is not necessary to use an e-book—a standard smartphone would work just as well and would not add any extra weight as a phone would be carried regardless of using e-books. However, a textbook, on average weighs between two to five pounds according to a study conducted by Betty Tan at Midwood high school in 2003 (Tan). This is up to five times heavier than the newest Kindle Fire e-reader which, as per the Kindle website, weights only 12.2 ounces—or 0.7625 of a pound (Kindle Fire HD 7 '). Most of the time, there is not just one textbook needed, there are multiple, so that two to five pounds of print books would double or triple while the weight of an e-reader would remain the same regardless of the number of books on it. This shows that while, yes printed books can be portable, e-books are far more portable as they carry significantly more books and are less weight when doing
Because of this, digital books are actually fairly pricey because they still cost as much as a physical book that does require manual labor and resources. An article from Books Avenue, entitled Why Are E-books More Expensive Than Printed Books, examines this price gap and states that “e-books are indeed cheaper than physical books [because] it is cheaper to produce something virtual,” so why is this lower value not reflected in the actual price that consumers pay? According to the previous article, this is due to the providers of e-books needing to keep the price artificially inflated so that they meet the authors’ required commissions (Why Are E-books More Expensive Than Printed Books). This is because the required commissions are tied to the printed book’s price, not the e-book’s. This means that if a print book should and does cost $35 and the author is supposed to get fifty percent of the profits, then they would be getting $17.50 from each printed book. This means though that the author would still require that $17.50 from the sale of an e-book even though the cost of the e-book should only be about $15. This would put the company selling e-books at their actual value at a loss of $2.50. In order to avoid that overdraft, they must keep the price of the e-book inflated to the same $35 as the print book. Because print is the …show more content…
That can be true only depending on what type of book is being referenced. A simple 200-page novel is definitely less weight than an e-reader device, but again, remember that this device is not necessary to use an e-book—a standard smartphone would work just as well and would not add any extra weight as a phone would be carried regardless of using e-books. However, a textbook, on average weighs between two to five pounds according to a study conducted by Betty Tan at Midwood high school in 2003 (Tan). This is up to five times heavier than the newest Kindle Fire e-reader which, as per the Kindle website, weights only 12.2 ounces—or 0.7625 of a pound (Kindle Fire HD 7 '). Most of the time, there is not just one textbook needed, there are multiple, so that two to five pounds of print books would double or triple while the weight of an e-reader would remain the same regardless of the number of books on it. This shows that while, yes printed books can be portable, e-books are far more portable as they carry significantly more books and are less weight when doing