Big publishers trying to weasel their way in?

With technology making e-books more than just a novelty, it's only a matter of time before larger publishers try to find a way to make the kind of profits off them that they did on print books. Seems they've already started and it also seems that they're relying heavily on reader's ignorance.

Why should an e-book from a larger publisher sell for almost the exact same price as a print book?

No matter what is said, there's absolutely no reason for this kind of pricing. The cost to produce e-books is next to nothing, there are no warehousing issues or none of the other things that drove the price of a print book up.

Well . . . there is one thing that might drive the price of a large publisher's e-book up since they choose to only use Amazon's Kindle or B&N's Nook to publish. That would be the cost of paying for the ENCRYPTION to keep these books from being read on anything BUT the exclusive readers purchased from either Amazon or B&N. Adobe works with B&N to secure their Nook books. I'm sure Adobe charges enough for that. And I'll bet it isn't cheap for Amazon to keep up to date with their encryption.

But why encrypt anyway?

I know I've said a lot about SmashWords lately but here's why. Their books are DRM free! What's that mean? It means the Kindle book they produce can be read on a Kindle reader WITHOUT the publisher of the book having to deal with a company like Amazon who attempts to act like the publisher and distributor by forcing things such as their "lending library" on their publishers. Then of course there's the allowing 7 days for an e-book to be returned. As I've said before, return of any item should be the publisher's choice, not one made by the distributor. Barnes & Noble's Nook also allows for returns I'm sure since B&N doesn't know any other way to operate.

SmashWord's books are DRM free!

I suppose they could be called the Napster of e-books. Oh and no, you won't see the large publishers going to SmashWords for e-book distribution. They aren't interested in anything but taking the most money they can from the reader. Well . . . they might if folks stopped buying Kindle's from Amazon or Nook books from B&N. But we all know that ain't gonna happen. In fact, the "big dog" publishers are counting on it!!!

Quite frankly I think it's time for a revolution. I'm just saying.

from your .doc and the Nook they produce can be read on ANY o only specific e-book readers can read them is simply a way to knock all other publish