Do you think the following opinion about Amazon.com is true?

Is this a bad thing?

The way I see it, paper books give a higher profit margin to writers. E-books don’t make them as much money. And real books are forever, while e-books are ephemeral.

Writers, like any smart business people, are trying to maximize their profits.

No conspiracy here, just capitalism,

People are beginning to reject electronic media as something they’ll pay for and demand for physical media is high. I for one no longer use ebooks, I want the real thing.

What are amazon dot com writers?

@rebbel: I cited Ian Hamilton & Michelle Medhat. They’re writers that began their career, or used most of their careers, writing on that website.

I must do no such thing. I will, however, suggest you contact Amazon and ask them to explain their outrageous behavior. Let us know how that goes.

Still, I love to read books on paper than on screen.

Amazon has a powerful database to analyze, how many books they have sold to read on the device or on paper.

@SnipSnip: I contacted Amazon, they said they’ve no control of the ebooks sold on their website, and to contact the publishers.

Yes, I don’t think Amazon has anything to do with it. I think sometimes authors have an e-book published to start out with, because they’re not sure how well it will be received. Probably there’s a bit less upfront cost, plus I’m guessing that you wouldn’t need to have a publisher approve of your work if you have a little know how. But once that book takes off and becomes really popular, I wouldn’t be surprised if is then taken off of the ebook market, as the desire would then be to sell the hard copy.

There are a number of websites where you can sign up for daily deals on ebooks, some of them offering books for free or 99 cents! Interestingly enough, when I see a book, an ebook to be specific, being offered for a low price, and I’ve never heard of the author before, I will often click on the link that takes me to Amazon and see if they have published a hard copy. If they have, and of course if I’m interested in the book, then that tells me that that book must have a certain level of quality if it got published in hard copy. Because, sadly, since publishing ebooks, while not as lucrative, is easier to accomplish, that also means that you get some pretty low quality ebooks out there.

Honestly, Amazon has no control over that. The Author and their publisher are the ones who decide if their work is available through e-format or paper books. The Publisher has the right to decide at any time to cancel the availability of a story/work in either format.
It could be a matter of the contract which gives Amazon permission to access the story in e-format has simply expired, or the publisher has decided that it is more profitable to sell the work as a physical copy, which, let’s face it, costs more than a digital one.
This is determined by a work’s popularity and cost benefit analysis- it costs money to print books- paper and ink are not free, and you have to make many copies and pay to advertise the book, and pay stores to sell them. If the author is unknown, just starting out, or their writing is not in high demand, then it is not worth it to print on paper. They will just offer e-book format which is super cheap and easy for everyone. As the writer gets more popular and recognized, then their publisher will consider offering both e-books and paper/hardback formats. If the author becomes popular, then the best way to make a huge profit is to make them more exclusive and only sell physical books.
Amazon has no control over this.
Just like Amazon can sell Apple Products but does not actually make iphones. Amazon is only a third party that distributes merchandise, they do not produce products unless it is specifically the Amazon brand.

There are many e-books available on Amaxon, and many books which are only available in e-format because the publishers decided that not enough people will pay for a physical copy of the book to make printing it worth the cost, but they will pay $0.99— $2.99 for a digital copy.

@Ikara: Thank you for the answer. Now I understand a bit more.