Someone help with the math here, because something ain't adding up. Typically in the book market, children's books are sold for a bit less than adult books. I don't exactly know why, but I presume that this is due to demands from the market. People expect children's books to be cheaper and therefore they are. (At one time children's books may have been, by and large, shorter, and therefore the product cost would be lower, but this hasn't really been true for some time. It probably set up an expectation in the market, though.)
Enter the eBook. People expect eBooks, at least adult eBooks, to be cheaper than their print versions. This is fair. EBooks after all do not use paper, covers or bindings. EBooks do not require trucks to rumble across the country burning gas to deliver. They do not require shelf space in bookstores. They do not require an underpaid clerk to operate a cash register to sell them. So, while a typical hardcover adult book is $20-$30, a typical eBook is $10-$12. To me, that's still too expensive, but I've written about that before and will address it again. Let's suffice it to say that it makes sense to sell eBooks at a lower cost than print books.
Except, apparently, in the children's market. Children's books typically sell, in print version, for $7-$15. And, in the eBook version? Well, they sell for . . . $9.99. I checked out The Nixie's Song, the first title in the Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles series. Print (Hardcover) from Amazon: $9.59 (Reduced from the $11.99 cover price). Amazon Kindle: $9.99. Young readers (or their parents) pay forty cents more for the privilege of reading the book on their $100-$200 Kindles.
Thank the gods Google has come along to bring some competition to the eBook market. They are now offering The Nixie's Song as a Google eBook download for . . . wait for it . . . $9.99.
It's nice to see two of the world's most dominant corporations promoting children's literacy in this way, isn't it?
Next rant: the absurdly overpriced audiobook.
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Hello,
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Building Self Esteem In Children