I have noticed that a few of my favourite authors are publishing short stories about their characters as e-books. I don't have a Kindle or similar so cannot download this kind of booklet.
I'm not getting one just for that but I am annoyed at missing out.

Annpan, I too miss out on the short stories from favourite authors.

Janalyn, It's true things are changing and not always for the better. I love browsing in bookstores or libraries. Soon, here in Canada, we won't have mail delivered any more. We will have to go pick it up.

Ahh Artiste8, you are one of the minority still getting home delivery. We have been using those super mailboxes at the end of the street for 25 years now. :) You will adjust. And anyway, most of the bills now are done online, the amount of paper items we get has diminished so much. Canada Post has been having a hard time making money.

I still would like to know where the money for ebooks goes...are the authors getting more of a percentage?

>I still would like to know where the money for ebooks goes...are the authors getting more of a percentage?

Janalyn, somehow I doubt it. I think it's just greed that keeps the prices so high. In my part of the world, it's actually cheaper or at least not more expensive to buy foreign eBooks, because the state cannot effectively level VAT and import tax on eBooks bought over the internet.

I know that some romance authors have been getting back the rights to their older works, either by waiting for the publishing contracts to expire or by buying them back, and then publishing them themselves as eBooks. These tend to be much more reasonably priced than publisher published eBooks. It also benefits the authors because they are not just getting royalties, they are getting the whole price of the book, minus the costs, which are much smaller because the books have already been edited.

Janalyn I participate in other 'reader's' forums and some dealing with ebooks. Whenever I mention what a great price I got on a certain book, one of the ladies living in Canada comments that she cannot get the same price. This has happened lots of times She says that ebooks in Canada are usually far more costly than here in the USA.
So, I wonder if the higher prices are not related to some 'rules' in Canada?

Pat

I am not sure about that Pat.
I thought I would check it out and chose The City and The City since I know it is a fairly recent book and well known.
The amazon.ca site: 12.64 Cdn for the paperback
12.99 Cdn kindle edition

The amazon.com site: 12.22 US for the paperback
12.99 US for the kindle edition

Right now the US dollar is worth more than the Cdn one, so when you add that in, it is cheaper to buy in Canada. But notice how the kindle edition is more expensive than the paperback in both countries.

Janalyn I just looked up the book-it is $9.99 for the kindle edition here....It looks like the paperback is about what you listed....if you're talking about the book by China Melville?
That was the only one I saw listed with that exact title.

I have signed up with several ebook sites and get daily emails of 'special offers' some which only last for 24 hours before going back to the original price. For instance just the other day I got Light of the World by James Lee Burke for only $2.99 and it is now back to the regular price...I think it was around $12.00 but is now maybe $8.

Pat

You are a woman of strong willpower, Pat, to be able to say no to some of those special offers! Either that or or your ebook is full, in which case I both understand and sympathize.

LOL Janalyn! I have 3 kindles....but over the years since I got the 1st one I have learned to be far more discriminating!

Pat

I don't know much about ebooks. But I do know there is a growing trend to "self-publish" one's own work, if one can find the money. There is so much competition now to just get a book published the old fashioned way, that many I know have chosen to go the self-publishing route.

I am very surprised to hear about the Canadian postal system. Where I live, mailmen still put letters into one's mailbox, whether on one's door, or in a large box out on the edge of the road, in rural areas.

As for newspapers, yes, predictions have been around for over a decade that they will go the way of the dodo or the dinosaur. Even in the 80's, the newspaper decline began, with morning editions merging with afternoon editions, into one daily paper, whereas before, there had been two. Then automation came to newsrooms and many reporters were laid off, as they could not keep up, leaving behind a skeleton staff.

To my great surprise, here in the city of Charleston, there are two quite different newspapers which are flourishing. The daily has a lot of features on Civil War History, Revolutionary War history of the area. Despite all the news to be found on line and on the ubiquitous TV, many seem to enjoy an old fashioned newspaper reading with their morning coffee.