Should ebooks be free or at least much cheaper?

[Widade Assaly]

I think ebooks should be cheaper, but not free. Authors should still be rewarded for their work. However, since it is less costly to produce ebooks that paper books, the price should be adjusted.

[Preye I]

E books should be cheaper just because it takes less materials to make them. You don't have to use paper and print and all that stuff. But definitely not for free because authors spend time writing.

[Janelydia Mwangi]

Ebooks are easy to read, while the hardcopy are ready, easy to use but tedious to store since one requires enough space

[Gabriela Contreras]

While I do not think art, of any kind, should be free, I do believe that ebooks should be a lot cheaper than paper books (hardcover or paperbacks). Art is a form of expression, it needs time and hard work to exist, but ebooks require a lot less resources.

[Umesh Bhatt]

I think old books and classics are already free in various sites. Further, the ebooks are reasonably priced. There are cheaper annual subscription scheme for the readers who can read a large number of books within the same subscription.

[Ayomikun Babalola]

Yes, I believe ebooks should be a lot cheaper than paperbacks but making them completely free would be detrimental to sales. A lot of people would opt for the free ebook rather than pay for a paperback.

[Helen Akoth]

I think ebooks should be cheaper than paperback and hardcover. But to be free? I don't think so, unless the author is running some kind of promotion or something.

[Matlhodi Nozwayo]

Yes definitely. Production of hardcopy books is more expensive and it takes selling it in person to sell properly. Ebooks can easily be advertised and accessed. The advantage is that they cannot age but I am pretty sure people still appreciate hardcopies more.

[Superglace]

I agree, I think ebooks should be much cheaper, as it saves the producer the money needed to spend on paper and ink, but I don't think it should be free. It should at least cost something to support the author.

[Etini Willie]

Any creative work should not be free. The author of an eBook spends time and creativity to provide a service that someone needs and he deserves to be renumerated for that

[Alexandur Gicov]

They should definitely be cheaper than paper versions. At least there is a difference in the publication of such a book. Fortunately, this is becoming more common, as the price of e-books has dropped dramatically as numbers have grown.

[Daniel A Roberts]

I also believe that ebooks should be cheaper but not free, however, there is one process I applaud and use over at Amazon. All of my novels that are bought as a paperback will get the Kindle version for free. It's not backwards compatible though. If they buy the Kindle version first then want the paperback, it won't refund the difference. That's not my doing, it's an Amazon thing. So the right order is Paperback first, Kindle version for the same title (mobi) is completely free.

[Charlienmegan Wehner]

I think in general ebooks are cheaper but the authors still need to make a profit, so they definitely should not be free imo.

[Jen Nghishitende]

It will be nice if they were cheaper but what will be the implications on the authors’ income?

[Michael Villanueva]

I think it needs to be cheaper. I understand wanting to support the author, but it makes little sense for the paperback to be around the same price or cheaper than the digital copy. I personally don't purchase many digital copies because I can get them free from library apps like Libby. The few books I do buy are usually paperback or hardcopy because I rather own a physical book when the price of the digital copy makes no sense.