Amazon's $9.99 eBook Price Model is No More

[Ambictus]

[citation][nom]stevesauce[/nom]I am appalled. And I thought the RIAA were the only greedy ones. Thanks for setting up the ebook playing field for the iTampon.[/citation]

This is exactly what I think too. I think Apple told publishers they wouldn't work with them unless they required Amazon to jack their prices up. Anything else makes no sense. Why would a publisher be upset at a retailer taking losses to move more product? A product that has very little overhead on top of that(no printing/shipping costs). Apple bends consumers over... shocker.

 

[tsnorquist]

If they put school text books up there at $14.99, that'll be a steal =)

Here's one to hoping though...

 

[nonstoprobot]

[citation][nom]shanky887614[/nom]well the author could quite easily skip out publisher now adays and do it directly with amazon?epecially well know authors[/citation]

They do actually, it's kind of silly because for popular books you have to wait in "e-line" but other than that most books are available for download no problem. I use the Los Angeles Public Library.

 

[karenskym]

So e-books are more expensive than most of the paperback books I buy now? They range between 7.99 and 14.99 for a hard copy usually.

 

[xrodney]

Rofl real book cost usually 15$ at least here and they maybe make 5$ on it, opposite on ebook they make 15$ on with ZERO investment.

So unless you sell them for like 5$ they should cost, no thanks I will keep paper version.

 

[vicsrealms]

Oh, I am definitely continuing to purchase hard and paper back books until whomever is running these e-book mess gets their act together...which will probably be never.

 

[maigo]

[citation][nom]shanky887614[/nom]well the author could quite easily skip out publisher now adays and do it directly with amazon?epecially well know authors[/citation]

Then who EDITS the books? There's a lot more to publishers than "hurrr ctrl+p print"

 

[maigo]

TOM forgot to mention that when Amazon first said 'no' they took ALL McMillan books off of sale. After agreeing Amazon still wont let you buy McMillan books.
So who's being the jerkwad here, it certainly not the writers Amazon is screwing.

 

[m-manla]

Hell let them charge $20. See who wants to stick with them.

 

[jsc]

Check out Baen Publishers. They publish Science Fiction and Fantasy. They have a novel approach that has worked for them for more than 10 years.

 

[Guest]

I think a couple of things need to be mentioned here. First of all, Amazon is not the world of ebooks. They are just one distributor of about 400K of them. Sites like Barnes and Noble sell over a million ebooks for their nook, and because they own the rights to the ebooks, they can sell them for what they want, and therefore are not subject to these price hikes. Further, once you donwload an ebook from B&N, you own it, period.

 

[False_Dmitry_II]

In all seriousness, I prefer an actual, oh I don't know, book. Alot of the time, I buy used on ebay, half.com and amazon. Even when it isn't used amazon ends up having good prices on the real thing. Then they come in with e-versions that are in many cases more expensive? No surprise that I don't buy them. Even if they're the same price, I'd go for the real copy, that they had to pay for. It has to be cheaper than that to make it even slightly appealing.

 

[BluntObjection]

[citation][nom]BookGirl[/nom]I think a couple of things need to be mentioned here. First of all, Amazon is not the world of ebooks. They are just one distributor of about 400K of them. Sites like Barnes and Noble sell over a million ebooks for their nook, and because they own the rights to the ebooks, they can sell them for what they want, and therefore are not subject to these price hikes. Further, once you donwload an ebook from B&N, you own it, period.[/citation]

B&N is truely awesome.
I also use a few other ebook stores that allow me to download the material in PDF versions. Which allows me to copy and distribute without worrying about not having the right program to read the ebook.
Anyway, even at 14.99 ebooks are less expensive of hardcover books. However paperback books tend to be significantly less. I would think that it would be more wise for ebooks to reflect paperback books. As opposed to hard-covers...
Just me 2 cents.

 

[razor512]

piracy of the more expensive audio books will simply increase.

Ebooks are overpriced and loaded with DRM which means that your ebook can stop working at any moment. theres also a problem with being locked into a ebook reader which is the main reason for it. DRM has never stopped a ebook from being pirated but it has stopped many people (often in a costly way) when a competitor releases a new ebook reader thats much better so the user who doesn't know about drm (most people don't) will buy a new reader and then notice that the ebooks they spent a arm and a leg on for the other brand ebook reader will not work on the new ebook reader.

 

[Guest]

for that price, the major websites are getting some serious bucks right there!
You might as well buy a real book for that price, as the ebook version can not stay with you forever, and only works on a kindle.

 

[tonewheelmonster]

[citation][nom]jaybus[/nom]How so? Public libraries won't start lending e-books anytime soon. Could you imagine the uproar the publishers would make over that? If you mean they have paper books, then that's like saying scrubbing your closes with with sand and water beside a creek is a viable alternative to a washing machine.[/citation]


maybe i'm missing something here but there are libraries all over the country that allow you to check out e-books. The sony ready and I think the Nook are compatible with this. The library purchases so many licenses that they can borrow out to people for each book. This has been happening for some time.

 

[WheelsOfConfusion]

[citation][nom]vicsrealms[/nom]Oh, I am definitely continuing to purchase hard and paper back books until whomever is running these e-book mess gets their act together...which will probably be never.[/citation]
I think that's actually what these publishers want right now. Notice it's the publishers who are demanding Amazon jack up the prices for e-books. They seem to be making all the same mis-steps that the music, movie, and television industries made during the digital transition. You'd think one industry could learn from another's mistakes...

Library support for e-book borrowing seems to be hit-or-miss depending on your county's system. Mine offers audiobooks online through a third-party service, but no text-based e-books.

 

[anamaniac]

Hmmm...
I only pay for books worth buying (Stephen King, Terry Brooks etc.), I pirate everything else.

My 23" monitor makes a mighty good ereader.
ThePirateBay is an excellent source of material.

 

[trevorvdw]

Nice! Charge the same as the real copy and you don't have to worry about the buyer giving it to their friend and "losing" you a sale. No more half.com used book sales to "steal" revenue from you either. Sounds a lot like electronic copies of game that cost no less than a boxed copy... no resale, the publishers love it.

 

[qvnguyen]

Hard copies are always the best way to go. The feeling of flipping that crisp page to discover how the story moves is just something that can't be replaced with a click of a button or a touch on the screen. I used to borrow 10 books per week from the library during my high school years during the summers so I can read at night after an awesome day of sun and fun.

Damn, those were some good times. I didn't have to worry about bills, cars, phones, or anything.