This is already happening. Many ebooks published in the last year, I noticed, started at one price, and have been coming down. It seems in the first year, the

This is already happening. Many ebooks published in the last year, I noticed, started at one price, and have been coming down. It seems in the first year, the price is usually $12.99-$15.99, but after a year or so, the price drops to $9.99. I figure in 5 years we'll see several pricing tiers: $22.99- premium new book from a big name author $17.99- premium book with a following (Eg: the next Twilight book in a series.) $15.99- regular "hardcover" price for a new book. $13.99- Discount hardcover price for a new book. $9.99- The standard back catalog price for books published in the last 10 years, or which still have strong sales. $7.99- Discount, pulp or paper back price (this is currently the common price on sci-fi paperbacks, or at least used to be, I suspect its higher now with inflation.) $5.99- Discount book or pamphlets, like guides and introductions, or older less popular paperback type books. $3.99- premium articles. $0.99- Short articles If the market is allowed to sort itself out, and ebooks become popular, this is the type of pricing we can expect, and this is the type of pricing you currently have in bookstores. A spectrum of prices to fit a spectrum of products. This is good. It allows for experimentation with low prices, or high prices to try and make a viable business. It would be really sad for book publishers to be locked into a pricing model that makes them increasingly irrelevant, and thus to have the book industry die the way the newspaper industry is dying. But maybe its just that I don't mind waiting a year for books to get them for $9.99. And if I really want the book, I don't mind paying $22.99. The convenience of having my whole library on my phone far outweighs any difference in pricing between physical and ebooks. Even if they're the same price, I'll still buy the ebook, though I think on the balance ebooks will be mostly cheaper.