The EBookNewser has a short Q&A with SmashWords founder Mark Coker. The whole print book pricing versus eBook pricing discussion is finally boiling down to some concrete ideas. I found it interesting that Coker can see a value divide between fiction and non-fiction:

I think non-fiction can support a higher price than fiction because people read non-fiction usually to solve a problem that has value to them, whereas people read fiction for entertainment and escapism.  There are multiple other opportunities for that, many of which are free.

Though the rest of that paragraph, where I took the above quote was a little too fuzzy for me. Surely more goes into the value/price of an ebook than 1. is it fiction or non-fiction? and 2. do we want to make lots of money or just have a bunch of people buy it?

I was surprised to hear that most of the titles on SmashWords are pushing the $5 mark. It’s been a while since I’ve bought something from SmashWords, I’m going to have to go check them out again.