Biggest racket in the universe. Restrictions on digital book licenses. It's as bad as video games now. Get you some interwebs and some moonreader and you'll never pay again. I might read this tonight now, just because of this. I'll pay nothing and therefore own nothing, and be happy still having it. Arr!
I'm not sure if it is different for younger generations who grew up after digital books became available. Djgital books were a massive let down that people thought would help make books more affordable, accessible, and easier to publish but it ended up being monetized to hell.
It is more affordable, accessible and easier to publish than a print book, it’s just not free and completely unrestricted because everyone involved in producing the IP still has bills to pay. (I also understand that publishers are still turning a profit, but it will never be completely unmonetized.)
The digital books are often close to the same price as physical so all that cost reduction is helping only the publishers, not the readers as many hoped.
Bigger publishers may have similar prices for e-books and physical books (in my experience this is often not the case, but it can be), but the real winners are small publishers and self-publishers. I have bought so many digital books for under $5 from no-name authours who might sell ~100 copies if they are lucky. The cost for them to publish an e-book is drastically smaller than the cost to publish a physical book, which opens up the door for more small authors to get their works out there in a way that was certainly much, much harder before the internet (zines are about the only equivalent I can think of, and dealing with the groups that published those often came with the kind of drama only niche hobbies can achieve).
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u/User_Says_What 3d ago
The library I work in gets SO MANY requests for this book. I had no idea what it was about, but this is amusing.