While all the world discusses the revolutionary (yes, that's said with tongue-in-cheek) Apple iPad, at the moment there's been a little bit of a kerfuffle between Amazon and MacMillan before we've even seen an Amazon Kindle versus iPad contest.

It seems McMillan wanted to put the price of ebooks up and go with an agency model.

What does that mean in English for the ordinary buyer?

A bit more expense.  In U.S. dollar terms, that's between $US12-$US15 for ebooks of bestsellers and new hardcovers.

I guess I'll never whinge about the price I charge on my own novel ever again.

I tended to experiment with the print-on-demand model, with a price of around $US10 for the physical book and around $US2.60 for the ebook versions.

Anyway, Amazon originally started by yanking MacMillan titles, only to quickly about-face and allow MacMillan titles again, vaguely hoping the higher pricing would be reflected in how buyers react to the high price.

I'd be very interested to hear what general readers thing is a fair price for an ebook.  Should it be almost as high as a physical hard copy...or should it be less expensive in the electronic form?