E-books’ new rivals: $10 hardcovers from Walmart.com

Comments:

• Rob Preece says:

  October 16, 2009 at 8:10 am

  You’d have to pay me a lot more than $10 to read a book by Sarah Palin. I’ll hold out at least to $250.

  Seriously, Walmart always offers discount books. I’d worry more about what this will do to the chain bookstores which depend on best-sellers than on small publishers.

  Rob Preece
  Publisher
• Steve Jordan says:

  October 16, 2009 at 8:14 am

  Walmart and Amazon are, according to radio news sources, already trying to outdo each other in this skirmish… Amazon matched the price of many discounted Walmart books, Walmart dropped them to $9, and Amazon matched that. But I haven’t heard of any similar matching by e-book sellers yet.

  This is probably the first salvo of a holiday price battle. It’ll be interesting to see if e-books are drawn into the battle, or left on the sidelines…
• David Rothman says:

  October 16, 2009 at 9:03 am

  Steve and Rob: This has ramifications for for both E and P, in my opinion, since price is such a key selling point for E. At the same time I’d be the first to admit that the audiences for the two media don’t precisely overlap.

  Thanks,
  David
• asphalt says:

  October 16, 2009 at 11:49 am

  how many people who read shop at wal-mart? is this price point a loss leader? like, we’ll go there for the $9.99 dan brown, and leave with that, and some mouthwash, a shrinkwrapped pallet of facial tissue, four dollar pajamas for the entire family, and a dvd player? i thought the dvd player was s’posed to be wal-mart’s loss leader. the world truly has gone mad.
• Mike Perry says:

  October 16, 2009 at 12:10 pm

  Quote: “You’d have to pay me a lot more than $10 to read a book by Sarah Palin. I’ll hold out at least to $250.”

  A closed mind is certainly a terrible thing, particularly in this context. Obama was in Chicago politics for twenty years and never discomfited, much less removed from office, a single one of the city’s many corrupt politicians. That’s a fact. He also never had a single notable achievement as either a legislator or an executive. He oversaw an Annenberg project that spent $165 million on Chicago schools with no measurable result.

  In contrast, in less that two years as Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin cleaned up her state’s politics, not even sparing her own party, and pushed through a pipeline to the States that had been in political limbo for twenty years. It’s not too hard to tell where the talent lies.

  I’ll definitely be reading Palin’s book. If I read the two with Obama’s name on cover (the authorship of one is disputed), it’ll be only as a study in how someone could dupe so many with such thin credentials.

  That’s not just my opinion. It seems to be the growing consensus. Last fall my Seattle neighborhood was filled with cars bearing Obama stickers. Now they’re an increasingly rare sight. My hunch is that in another six months the Kerry 2004 stickers will outnumber the Obama 2008 ones.

  The startling contrasts between Obama and Palin illustrate the importance of a free press. In the short term, a well-placed few can tilt an election or ram through harmful legislation. But if you have a lively and free press, in the long run the truth will come out, perhaps through those $10 hardbacks at Walmart.

  That’s why both repressive and corrupt governments turn to censorship. It’s why in societies where freedom of speech is deeply imbedded, they resort to attacks on their press critics. Nixon did it. Obama is now doing it.

  Ebooks, by leveling the playing field between large and small publishers, offer a chance to level the playing field between the “well-placed few” and the rest of us. I can’t afford to print and store a 100,000 copies of a book in a warehouse. But I can afford a website that could download a million ebooks or more. That’s an important difference. This country must never again see an election in which the press coverage was as heavily tilted as it was in 2008. Even more important, the cause of freedom in the world can’t afford another blunder like this one.
• Katherine says:

  October 16, 2009 at 4:20 pm

  Wow, I almost don’t know what to say to so much propaganda, disinformation and outright lying in so small a space and mind.

  “Obama was in Chicago politics for twenty years and never discomfited, much less removed from office, a single one of the city’s many corrupt politicians”

  Huh? It’s not like he was the police chief or mayor. A state senator removing a city official from office would be a tad overreaching, don’t cha think?

  “He also never had a single notable achievement as either a legislator or an executive.”

  You don’t consider requiring video recording of police interrogations notable? Or ethics/campaign finance reform (the first in 25 years)? Or an earned-income tax credit? He got all three passed, and he worked cooperatively to do so. (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2008/06/25/obamas-state-senate-years-show-bipartisan-record/)

  He oversaw an Annenberg project that spent $165 million on Chicago schools with no measurable result.

  It was a GRANT from a PRIVATE foundation. It was $49.2 million. The goals were “encouraging collaboration among teachers and better professional development; reducing the isolation between schools and between schools and their communities; and reducing school size to improve learning.” Obama was on the board but not the primary driver of this. The results were not what the funders hoped, but they learned some valuable lessons which were shared with the educational community and may help improve future education efforts.

  http://www.annenbergfoundation.org/news/news_show.htm?doc_id=702786

  “In contrast, in less that two years as Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin cleaned up her state’s politics, not even sparing her own party, and pushed through a pipeline to the States that had been in political limbo for twenty years.”

  And where is that pipeline? (Cue the chirping crickets) http://krbd.org/modules/local_news/index.php?op=centerBlock&ID=229 Oh, there’s so much more I could say about the quitter from Wasilla…

  “It’s not too hard to tell where the talent lies.”
  Couldn’t agree more!

  “The startling contrasts between Obama and Palin illustrate the importance of a free press. In the short term, a well-placed few can tilt an election or ram through harmful legislation.” As the period of 2001-2009 revealed all too well.

  “A closed mind is certainly a terrible thing”

  Mike Perry: pot, meet kettle.
• Katherine says:

  October 16, 2009 at 5:27 pm

  On a less political note, Costco has offered heavily discounted books (bestsellers and otherwise) for years. Not sure the prices get THAT low, but still, I think hardcovers are half off.
• Douglas Jacobs says:

  November 14, 2009 at 10:06 am

  I’ve been to both Walmart and Target and I don’t think the stores have gotten this memo yet. Haven’t seen any new hardcover books for $10. They may have hardcover books that have been out for awhile for a lower price but most avid readers want NEW books!
• Joyce says:

  November 14, 2009 at 10:04 pm

  I thought that price was for books from Walmart.com. I’m not sure if the stores are carrying them for the same price.