Can e-books succeed while prices are relatively high?

That’s the main question that Amazon needs to answer to have any chance of gaining traction with its Kindle ebook reader. Amazon Kindle is a wonderful little gadget that is very handy for those of us who read almost all the time, regardless of where we are. But many are arguing that Amazon is charging too much for eBooks. While Amazon has stuck with $9.99 per eBook for most books, there are some eBooks that are going for $20, $30 or more on Amaozn. Those are prices that I don’t think people are ready to pay for an eBook. Not now any way.

For starters, eBooks are cheaper to be made and one would expect savings to be passed on to customers. Also, you can’t sell eBooks back when you buy them. At least that’s what publishing companies won’t allow you to do for now. But one thing that publishing companies can’t keep you from doing is getting free copies of eBooks online. Piracy is a big problem for ebook publishers and believe it or not that could help Amazon Kindle gain more than enough popularity to survive.

Are there the prices for eBooks high for Amazon Kindle? You bet it is. Will Amazon bring them down any time soon? That all depends. Amazon wants to keep the publishers happy and achieve mass adoption, so they may keep the prices high for the time being. What do you think? Do you think piracy will help or hurt Amazon Kindle?