I ran across this gem today, announcing the price for Stephen King’s new e-book, due out in December (the hardcover will precede it by a month).
Scribner announced Wednesday that the digital edition of King’s “Under the Dome,” a 1,000-plus page novel, would have a list price of $35, several dollars higher than for what e-books usually are listed.
I have to say, I am at a loss to understand why an e-book would cost $35. There are no printing costs, no distribution, and it’s Stephen King so marketing is nil. The man is a household name. I have to wonder what they’re going to charge for the hardcover. It would be interesting to find out how many people will fork over that kind of money for an e-book, on a reader that will be obsolete in a few years. How many computer programs can’t even read files that were saved in older versions of themselves? What happens to your ‘library’ when the technology changes? It would be nice if someone had the answers to these questions.
Maybe someday we’ll all just have microchips in our heads and we’ll download the book directly to our brains, saving ourselves from having to read at all. In the future are actual, physical books going to become the exclusive domain of museums and wealthy collectors? Better hang on to the ones you’ve got, those could be your grandchildren’s inheritance.
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