Culture minister says government will propose ending the 25% rate, the highest in the world, in its budget bill
    • RonnieB@lemmy.worldEnglish
      26·
      3 days ago

      It’s crazy how much some ebooks are since they avoid printing costs. Seeing ebooks for $20 or more pisses me off so much.

      • MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        23 hours ago

        I’ve been using the soundleaf app with a self-hosted audiobookshelf server and it’s been a game changer for accesing books without those insane ebook markups.

      • warmaster@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        For publishers ebooks pay 25% royalties compared to the 50% of print books at bookstores. Sustaining a company on selling items for 25% of $20 is unrealistic. So, I would say you are not the one getting the worse deal.

        Books are not massively profitable.

    • tormeh@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      14·
      3 days ago

      Eh, dunno about denmark, but Norwegian books are like 3x the price of the same book in German. That’s mostly because it’s a small market that still needs translation, though. Doubt fiddling with the VAT will make much difference.

      • cyberslask@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 days ago

        There has been no VAT on books in Norway, including e-books, since 2015. Norway scores very high on books read per capita, about double that of Denmark.

      • Showroom7561@lemmy.caEnglish
        9·
        3 days ago

        But if price was a concern, aren’t libraries an option? Buying new books isn’t very common, at least not in North America, where our bookstores have all but disappeared.

        I’d be surprised if there was a strong or growing market anywhere in the EU.

        • tormeh@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
          7·
          3 days ago

          Yeah, it’s not looking good. There are still bookstores, but more and more it feels like a niche thing.