I’m seeing this often enough that it’s clearly not made in error:
(Sorry, the images went bye-bye. The alt text remains, however, being useful for everybody.)
These aren’t textbooks! These aren’t audiobooks! These aren’t box sets containing multiple books! These are two unrelated publishers who want more than $20 for individual digital novels! The trade paperback of the first, with its attendant materials and warehousing and shipping expenses, costs only $18!
I will psychically punch the next person who says $5.99 is too much for an ebook when “real” publishers are abandoning $12.99 and $16.99 in favor of $20-plus.
Both of these books were highly recommended by people whose taste I trust, and I bounced off both without even glancing at a sample because there’s no way in this world or any other. Are they high on their own farts in those publishers’ offices? Belatedly trying to kill ebooks with “well, they don’t sell, and there’s no possible explanation other than that the people want paper”? Specifically trying to harm the careers of the authors they sign by guaranteeing poor sales volume (no bestseller credentials and great sales history to bargain with in their next deal)? Whatever the motivation behind this strategy, it can’t possibly be ethical.
Publishing has long been trending toward “don’t bother unless you can afford to do this as a hobby” for writers, with shrinking payments, vanishing publishing support, and expectation you will throw your own money at a bestselling promotional campaign (for which you totally have the necessary media contacts from your years at Vassar!) if you ever want to get another contract.
Now it appears to also be trending toward “only rich readers allowed.”