Should ebooks be free or at least much cheaper?

[Janai khanai]

E-books are addictive....
Mobile and its apps are developed and designed in light of human psychology or human psyche has more say in relation to mobile and its apps. Using of mobile has increased with the advent of smart/android phones. Thereby mobile-holic people like me prefer e-books than paper back.

[Sarah Starling]

I don't think they should be free at all. Authors put just as much work into writing, editing, and publishing eBooks as they do physical books. I think they should be cheaper than physical books because the production/shipping cost is obviously less so it should reflect that.

[patriciasolima]

Ebooks shouldn't be free but atleast be cheaper than buying hardbound books. It is best that we acknowledge the author's hardwork in writing the book. But, an ebook must be cheaper than buying a physical book. It I because ebooks are soft copies and can be viewed through mobile phones, tablets and etc. You do not need to a physical book to see the content. Technology now made it easier and more portable. The transfer of a written document is quick and easy. It doesn't need to be printed out to be read. You just need an ebook reader and you're good to go.

[Nutron12]

E-books needs to be but the price has to less for anyone to afford one..

[zoharis]

Aren't e-books cheaper that physical copies?
I might be wrong but I always see e-books costs less than paperback books on amazon.

[garima597]

Ebooks should not be free but yes it can be much cheaper. Nonetheless, I love reading ebooks so I purchase them.

[Laceyadams]

Ebooks shouldn't be free. It took a lot of time and effort for the author to write and publish. But it should be way cheaper as the overall cost of production is greatly reduced. I still surf the web for cheaper ebooks especially from African authors. It's my rave of the moment

[kinjoz]

Yes, they should be. This helps plenty of writers to not only get their work out there to people but also make it easily accessible and retrievable. It comes in handy plenty of times when all I need is my phone and network to be able to read a new book or keep reading one I'd started on while away from home.

[Znb]

I do think they should be cheaper due to lack of materials. Free, on the other hand, maybe not. This is because for some authors, writing is their livelihood. Theyve put time and effort into their creation and do deserve to be paid for it. If we make e-books free it could reduce the number of new books that come out as writers become less motivated to write and publish their art

[Bookgirleva]

Yes but publishers still want to make money

[Bookgirleva]

Amazon has the match book program where when you buy one form of a book either ebook or paper the other form is available at a deeply discounted rate

[dianaterrado]

Personally I think if you have already bought a copy of the paperback and wants to buy the ebook too there should be some sort of code? Or something that will subtract a certain amount from the original cost? I mean authors do so much work to write books but I think readers need a little more incentive too to buy more books.

[Mordnacht]

I agree with many people in this thread about the E-book versions being considerably less. The reason why physical copies of books are expensive is because the author is not doing all the work to make it into a physical copy. The author has a publisher who does that all for them. This process costs money, therefore the price for the physical copy of the book includes the publisher, the printer, the author, etc. When you are buying a digital copy of the book, it takes out the middle man. Authors are able to self publish themselves on sites like Amazon and therefore 90% of the amount goes to the author, with a small percentage going to Amazon for listing it and such. Therefore, it stands to reason that the digital copy be less expensive.

Free is not a feasible option for authors who make writing their full-time or part-time job. I believe it is not even feasible for any author though, strictly because they've put time and effort into creating a world and characters were the reader can explore and become engaged in. Authors deserved to be paid for their craft, just like a painter or potter.

[Harley-Panda]

I agree with many other above that they shouldn't be free as the author still deserves to be paid for their hard work. I think they should be discounted by the amount that creating the actual physical copy costs.

I can understand the arguments above that people should pay more for the convenience of having it delivered immediately, but I disagree. This may be true for many other things, such as paying for food delivery rather than going to the store etc. however I think the discounted price makes people more likely to buy ebooks as compared to paper copies which means fewer trees are cut down to make them. It might not make a huge difference for the environment (as people still need electricity to download/read the book) but every little helps!

[Oulababe]

I might be open to the idea that they should be a bit cheaper than paperback but they shouldn't be free. The same effort put into writing a book in paperback is the same effort and creativity that is put into eBooks. So I don't think it would be fair to the authors if eBooks were free.