Amazon Caves To Publishers On eBook Pricing 236
AusPublishingWorker writes "With the iPad arriving on the scene, it seems that Amazon is feeling the pressure on eBook pricing from publishers. ITNews reports that Amazon has agreed to deals with both Harper Collins and Simon and Schuster which would allow the companies to select their own prices rather than the default US$9.99 price tag. Given the recent deal with Macmillan, it seems likely that we'll be seeing eBook prices moving up towards $14.99 in the near future."
Re:$9.99 was too high for an ebook to begin with (Score:5, Informative)
``electroinc books have neither a cost advantage nor a "convenience factor".''
They are searchable, aren't they?
And also, for people who move around a lot, electronic books probably have a weight advantage.
Re:The Real Issue (Score:3, Informative)
I really don't get that one...
I can top that. Back in 7th grade, my cousin and I were selling lottery tickets door to door for charity. As a joke at the first house on our route, I said:
And the guy at the door wanted to buy four for twenty.
Figuring it was just a fluke, we tried it at the next house. Same thing. So we did it the entire route. Out of about a hundred houses, only a handful of people batted an eyebrow and asked if we didn't mean five for twenty.
I suspect we've been so indoctrinated into getting discounts if we buy multiples, that we don't even check to see if we're saving money. Like the 99 cents vs 1 dollar thing. Sure, if we buy 99 of them, we can get one more for free. But books? If you buy a hundred books at 9.99 you've saved exactly 1 dollar over the 10.00 ones. And just the time you lose keeping track of that tiny coin every time is going to cost you more money. If you buy a thousand books at 9.99 instead of 10 you can now afford one more book.
Personally I can go through a typical book in about 4 hours. So it's taken me half a year to save up enough money to buy another book.
More reasonable pricing (Score:5, Informative)
Considering the fact that you get no physical copy and are encumbered by DRM, it seems to me that fair pricing is as follows:
$9.99 for the period when the only physical copy available for sale is hardcover,
$4.99 once the paperback comes out.
Anything above these prices is, to me, a rip-off.
This explains why I have never purchased an e-book, yet the bookshelves in my home are overflowing.
Re:More Media BS (Score:5, Informative)
I suggest you look into the Sony PRS-505. Sony & the publishers can't do shit to the stuff I have put on my reader.
It supports damn near every format of displaying books (use Calibre if you don't like a format), it reads the data from an SD-card.
The fact that it doesn't connect wireless to the world is a GOOD THING.
It works both ways (Score:3, Informative)
These stories never seem to mention that while the publishers want $14.99 at the high end, they also want the ability to price below $9.99 for back titles. Amazon has pushed the $14.99 price point so hard in the hopes that people wouldn't notice the cheaper part.
Re:$14.99 seems way too high for an eBook. (Score:2, Informative)
If Amazon finds the cost of maintaining DRM on their books negligible and still willing to maintain a lower price for ebooks, more power to them. Why should a publisher even care what a seller charges for the ebook? It's not like the seller is paying the publisher any less.
Re:$14.99 seems way too high for an eBook. (Score:4, Informative)
I guess the publishers (years of experience working against them I fear) might be thinking that Amazon couldn't possibly stay afloat with this pricing model and don't want to see the other retailers go out of business as well. I for one am glad that Baen (the only publisher with any degree of sense about ebooks) has a few authors I actually like - they actually sell DRM free books and do very well. You guys should check out Eric Flint's writing on the matter (http://www.baen.com/library/). It is very refreshing to see an author (with the full support of his publishing house) writing something so exquisitely sensible about DRM and piracy and the whole "authors getting ripped off" crop of shenanigans.
Just remember that corporations, while proclaiming the virtues of the free market on the one hand, will gladly blow anyone (including the government or even their competitors) for a bit of protectionist backscratching. In fact, this whole Amazon debacle stinks to me of a Survivor-like scenario where the best people are knocked out early. There are no Hank Reardens or Dagny Taggarts in the real world - the sooner we accept it and move on, the lesser the number of ulcers we have to suffer through
I will stress again (for skimmers - NTTAWWT) - this is purely speculative. It seems plausible to me but I have no facts about this.
Authors agree: $14.99 way too high for an eBook. (Score:5, Informative)
A lot of authors (and I'm one) would agree with you on the pricing issue -- if not on the "right" to take it for free. Some of them will give it to you if you ask nicely (or visit their website) though.
Author J.A. Konrath has been blogging [blogspot.com] recently about how much he's been making ($4200 last month) off of his low priced ($1.99, $2.99) e-books on Kindle (books he's selling directly, vs others of his that his publisher is selling at higher prices). Unsurprisingly, lower priced books sell better than higher priced ones -- and in his and a few other authors' cases, they're selling pro-quality, professionally edited stories, not unreadable crud by a newbie author. His view is that the high prices publishers want to charge for e-books is a serious mistake, and in his next book deals he's not going to give e-rights to the publisher unless they fork over some serious (six-figure) cash for them, and a better percentage royalty.
This very much parallels what some bands are doing with distributing their music themselves rather than going through RIAA companies. Indeed the term "indie author" is catching on.
There still needs to be some vetting of an unknown author's work, either by traditional publishing or word of mouth and reviews from early readers, but the change is coming. I'm certainly considering making some of my own work (initially previously-published stuff to which I have e-rights) available that way. Even a little success that way gives a bit more leverage with a traditional publisher (which is still the most profitable route to go and will be for a few more years yet).