eBooks

OK, so I admit it, I only read e-books anymore. I mean, I can carry several whole series (Two, in fact, at the moment) in my pocket at any one time, each consisting of thousands of pages of real book. When Ari and Adina introduced me to George RR Martin's awesome A Song of Ice and Fire series, I bought the first book in analog format and read it on vacation in Maine. I then purchased the rest of the series (the next two books at the time) in Microsoft Reader format so I could read them on my PDA. They were ~$7 for a combined e-book of the first and second books and then another ~$6 for the second one. A month or two ago, the 4th book in the series, A Feast for Crows came out. I've just finished A Storm of Swords and very much need to continue reading the series. Now, the prices I paid for the first two e-books compares to the price of paperback novels, and I'm entirely OK with that, nevermind the fact that there's no manufacturing cost for these things, and the bandwidth usage is minimal and the publisher can sell direct and get 100% of the revenue from the sale. Now, I've just checked the Storm of Swords e-book and it's $17.95! I mean, that's the price of the hardcover!
Now, Amazon has it available for 30% less than the publisher's list price; so I will be getting it from them.
A lesson to be learned for the publishers: There's more profit in e-books due to zero distribution and manufacturing costs and you should be encouraging people to purchase your products this way.
I must say Kudos to Baen publishing, as they often bundle e-book editions with their hardcover editions; I got the entire (as of the time of purchase) Honor Harrington series on un-DRMed e-books when I bought Ashes of Victory, I think it was.
Regardless, I shake my fist at thee, publisher with unreasonable pricing schemes.