a geniune reflection of the readers desire to get it early. Let's be straight here: publishers knew perfectly well what the public wanted and thought they were paying for. It undermines the rest of your arguments, some of which are valid. The cost of production materials (paper, printing) has been repeatedly used by publishing as an excuse to hike prices. Now, when those costs disappear, one cannot really say 'oh they were really minor, and we were actually selling you early access' without looking like a bloody liar. Also conveniently forgetting to mention the the 50% loss in returns and distribution costs - something I have yet to hear a publisher admit is now being saved... is well, shall we say avoiding the truth about costs? If of course that 50% was now given to the author, there'd be some justification in keeping the price up. But really, given the lack of transparency about pricing and who gets what, and historical lies (about material costs and needing to keep authors eating ;-/), the publishing industry, like the RIAA, has a serious credibilty problem with their customers. Authors would be well advised IMO to distance themselves from this, and to let their readers know (as the music professional have) that pricing is the business of publishers and retailers and that authors at their 6-8% of cover price are victims too. My only comment is thus- every e-book I have illegally downloaded I already own the dead tree version, and cannot legally