> But for libraries, the e-book or e-audiobook version of a title actually costs up to three times or more than the print version.
Is this an economically rational outcome for a not-obvious reason, or have libraries been very poor negotiators here, in the way they have spent public funds; or have e-book sellers been exploitative (or a bit of both)?
I guess it's because of copyright, i.e. it's hard to make an illegal copy of a printed book, and it's easy to make a digital copy of an ebook. So the ebook-markup is partial due to the expected privacy.
My other guess is, that it really is more expensive. I think, the publisher's digital infrastructure is really bad. And there is a lot of overhead when publishing a new book with lots of DRM on it. And most books don't get sold that often. So a small number digital purchases must pay for that over-proportional up-front cost.
I know that where I live my understanding is that basically the publishers felt 'screwed' by the old deal that they had with print books and that libraries were underpaying. So when e-book negotiations started they used that to try to claw back some of the money they felt they where owed as it where.
Is this an economically rational outcome for a not-obvious reason, or have libraries been very poor negotiators here, in the way they have spent public funds; or have e-book sellers been exploitative (or a bit of both)?