All they’re doing here is encouraging the piracy of what could be a superb new medium.. BUT I have a suspicion too. Perhaps if authors saw how easy it was to write and self-publish eBooks, they won’t need publishing houses? An absurd idea, since there is a lot more to a book than simply publishing (marketing/accounts/etc) – but still, is this there scare factor?

Don’t think of it as an ebook. Think of it as mobster protection money.

– Not buying any ebooks until no DRM and price < 1/2 mass market

“We appreciate the many questions, comments, suggestions, and ideas that are submitted by our readers and are happy to share them with our Editorial, Publicity, Sales and Marketing departments. Because of the volume of mail received, we cannot guarantee that you will receive a personal response; however, we will certainly forward your comments about our eBook pricing along to the appropriate individuals for review.

Thank you for taking the time to contact us”

And my query has been marked unassigned…oh yes, ebooks have “failed experiment” stamped all over it.

So are publishers afraid of running afoul of territorial rights-which, if not specifically licensed to the publisher, reside with the author-when they choose not to sell e-books overseas?

Doesn’t explain why Amazon.com can ship books to pretty much anywhere in the world (well, I’ve had them ship books to three different continents so far with no issues).

I believe the thinking is that their ebook customers are mainly US residents. (Someone please correct me if I’m wrong!)

So are publishers afraid of running afoul of territorial rights–which, if not specifically licensed to the publisher, reside with the author–when they choose not to sell e-books overseas?

The biggest price in ebooks is the DRM.

It is amazing to me that anyone in business thinks making customers pay through the nose for the most annoying and prone to error part of the whole eBook buying experience, the DRM.

If you know anything about cracking pdfs these locks are easily stripped off.

A fine example of short sighted and useless waste of effort all due to paranoia.

When I realised the ebooks by my favorite ‘print authors’ were as much (or more) than the Trade Paperback versions of their books, I was thoroughly disgusted.

I’ll stick to buying ebooks from epublishers, I guess, though the idea of having a digital deLint library made my fangirl heart palpitate.

I hate being one of the consumers contributing to the ‘failed experiment’ (since I agree, Jen, that’s exactly how the numbers will be interpreted) however, I just can’t justify bending over, either. :(

I agree with Jennifer McKenzie that the worst thing that will happen is no sales will occur so Penguin will say – “oh, failed experiment, let’s not do this anymore.”

The biggest price in ebooks is the DRM. So essentially, Penguin is saying that you should bend over and they want you to pay to be shafted in the ass.

I don’t know the thinking in pricing e-format over paper for the same book. Basically, I have no idea what goes into any of this kind of thing, so I’m virtually no help at all.

I don’t know that letters to customer service is the avenue to take. Maybe letters to the digital director (which sounds dirty somehow) would be a more direct route.