Why are e-book so expensive?

There are only a few publishers who deal with college textbooks, and so there is little competition amongst them. Without competition, they don't need to lower the price of their products as much, because they know the consumer has only a few choices. If, indeed, the consumer has anychoices, because usually the student is required to have a certain book for his or her course. So because they know that you are going to buy their book, whether you want to or not, they jack up the prices sky high. I suppose the short answer to this question is pure greed.

Try to find a PDF of the book first, or rent it.