This is one of the areas where government has distorted the market via regulations, namely around copyright, to benefit big publishers over authors. I'm not su

This is one of the areas where government has distorted the market via regulations, namely around copyright, to benefit big publishers over authors. I'm not sure of the best solution to this, but if we had thousands of independant publishers or authors self-publishing, then there would be more competition, and pricing would be more in line with profitability. EG: It is more profitable to produce and sell and ebook than a paperback, because paperback production is expensive. Therefore, the author would likely price the ebook lower and still make more profits on each sale. Further, he'd get more sales because the price was lower. I think publishers don't quite understand he market here and are afraid to make a mistake, and so they are pricing ebooks defensively.