You have failed me for the last time, Kindle-miral.

In recent months I’ve been touting the coming of e-readers, particularly the Kindle, to anyone who will listen. As an avid reader, I’ve been stoked to get my hands on one; the idea that I can download a book, immediately, for less money than a printed book is a subject very dear to my heart. Order from Amazon (if you have a Kindle e-reader) or from Chapters/Indigo (if you have a Sony e-reader) - no running from bookstore to bookstore or waiting (and/or paying) for shipments, not to mention having my storage issues solved. Heaven!

But as I ran a few pricing tests (Kindle vs. Sony) I came across an unpleasant realization. Yes, some e-books are much cheaper than their printed counterparts. But once you get off the ‘featured books’ list, the price of an e-book is virtually the same – IF NOT MORE.

Wait, what? Distribution, overhead and materials alone should make an e-book substantially cheaper. But they’re not. Following are five books I checked out.


Charlaine Harris, From Dead to Worse
Indigo: Printed book $8.99 e-book $8.59
Amazon: Printed book $7.99 e-book$7.59

The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life
Indigo: Printed book $13.72 e-book $11.99
Amazon: Printed book $13.60 e-book$ not available (great!)

Pride, prejudice and zombies
Indigo: Printed book $13.64 e-book $ not available (really??)
Amazon: Printed book $13.99 e-book$ 9.77

Stephen King: Just After Sunset
Indigo: Printed book$11.82 e-book: $10.39
Amazon: Printed book $9.99 e-book $9.99

Patricia Briggs: Moon Called
Indigo: Printed book $8.99 e-book: not available (grr!)
Amazon: Printed book $7.99 e-book $8.39

(Note: Amazon prices are in USD. I have not factored in the iRewards discount for Chapters, either).

I call Shenanigans on e-book publishers! Here’s an article by Rick Broida for CNET that I found that further fanned my indignant rage.

Boy, I feel like a chump. My apologies to all the people I’ve been raving to about e-books and e-readers. Apparently price is NOT an issue at this time. I am hereby deleting an e-reader off my WANT list until further notice. We’ll see what happens when Apple launches iBook or iReader or whatever the heck they end up calling their product.

On a side note: Harlequin Romance offers e-books (in three formats) on their site for a pretty good discount off the regular printed books. I’m not a fan of Harlequin, but they actually offer some other authors I recognize, like CE Murphy, Mercedes Lackey and PC Cast. Kudos to them.