Price gouging will chase away business

Several book series I read have new books either just out or coming soon and I am terribly disappointed to have to give them up, but I just can't believe that a Kindle or Nook edition of a book costs as much as the paperback or hardback to produce and deliver.

I know Amazon fought this battle with the publishers last year and lost, but I kept hoping that Berkley, Harper-Collins, Macmillan, etc would decide that price gouging was not a way to gain and keep customers. They haven't figured that out, so I have decided that they will get no more of my money.

For me this means giving up reading series I have followed for years and ignoring interesting sounding new books. I know that one reader doesn't matter much to them, but it's a matter of principle for me. I won't support them in any way until they stop abusing my good nature and I have written to tell them so.

Fortunately, this does not mean I have to give up reading. There is a lot of free reading available for ebooks, LBB tells me he gets just as much fun out of reading a 99 cent John Locke thriller as a $14 John Sandford, and I have actually found several fun reads in the $.99 to $3.99 price category.

Times are hard and I know that publishers and authors need to make a living, but there is simply no way that transmitting an ebook costs as much or more than publishing and delivering a dead tree version and I find it insulting that these businesses are treating ebook readers this way.