The e-book pricing debate

You may have read in the news lately that some e-book retailers, including Sony and Amazon, have been selling some e-books for as little as 20p. This works out as a 97 per cent discount on some top titles, including books by authors such as James Herbert and Jeffrey Archer.

At the moment, the authors have been receiving the full royalties on their books even though they have been sold as part of summer-long 20p promotions, but there is a worry from some that once the public get used to paying so little for books, authors’ profits will eventually fall as a result.

The Society of Authors is worried that the downward pressure on prices means that authors will find it harder to make a living from their writing, even as digital sales have soared in the first half of this year.

It is certainly an interesting debate: on the one hand, measures to entice people to buy more e-books could be a good thing for authors’ sales figures, but on the other, it could have a long term impact on their ability to earn from their writing.

You can read more about the issue here and here, but what do you think about it?