eBooks - killing a new media

Ok so Im not in the best of moods tonight, despite a 3-1 win for England, I still feel grumpy.

But thats not been helped by my recent visit to Waterstones online, I thought I'd cheer myself up by actually purchasing a new ebook for the great Sony eBook reader. At this point I felt myself transform into Richard Wilson (the funny version not the current model appearing in the appalling Merlin) How much do they want for an ebook ???  This must be some form of a joke because the print versions of tehse are selling for £3.84 in Tesco, let me get this right, no print run, reduced distribution costs, simpler editting process and you want me to pay 50-100%  more for the privilege ?

Hang on I get it now - Im an early adopter of a technology, or in marketing speak "Ripe for exploitation" but actually heres the thing - I can make really simple comparisons of prices, I dont normally carry more than one paperback at a time anyway - I like this new media but I have alternatives. Well I do, but not everyone does have.

What i really liked about ebooks was the potential for the content, be it Horror, Humour or whatever, to be serperated from the presentation. Want your book in large print Press "+" want to hear speech output press "Speech" but if I want this flexibility - I need to pay a premium - those that dont want it - will stick with traditional media, hence keeping the market small and the prices high

I thought publishers and booksellers were going to learn from the mistakes of all those other media companies, music, and films faile dto grasp the potential of this market. Television is getting there, and here was an opportunity for publishers to make a killing, instead they seem to determined to kill the medium instead.

And at the end of the day, its readers with individual needs who will find that once again thos eneeds can only be met at a price.