<i>It hurts the reader, in that they can't get cheap eBooks until a year after they are released</i><p>One of the lessons I have learned from this debacle is that I should be careful what I wish for. It turns out, according to my favorite authors, that time-sensitive pricing is a huge part of what makes the economics of their business work. After all, an author's hardcore fans are willing to pay more, and time-sensitive pricing -- with books costing more on the day of release, then gradually getting cheaper -- is the established mechanism for extracting that premium. The "hardcover" vs "softcover" vs "remaindered" thing is the industry's way of signalling the different price points.<p>I've suddenly started looking at hardcover buyers with more respect. These people aren't suckers, or at least they aren't <i>mere</i> suckers. They are the patrons, the hardcore fans, that are keeping my favorite writers in business.<p>It would be the height of irony if I eventually got what I used to think was my wish -- flat-rate ebooks at, say, $5 per copy, no premium pricing -- only to see my favorite authors either go out of business or figure out some other way -- exclusive early releases by subscription, the street performer protocol, selling T-shirts, product placement -- to recover the equivalent of the cost of a hardcover book!<p>We're all going to save money in the e-book era, but I'm not really sure it's going to be <i>that</i> much money: Writers and editors and marketers still need to be paid. We'll save on printing and shipping, but that may be about it. There just aren't tons of excess profits sitting around in book publishing: The audiences are too small. I might not even save money on bricks and mortar: I <i>like</i> visiting bookstores or the equivalent, even if just to sit and drink tea while surrounded by media.