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Penguin Ayn Rand version goes from $9.99 to $27.99 in Kindle store!
May 28, 2010 | 4:20 pm
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By Paul Biba
Got the following email from John Hagewood and thought you should know about it:
Penguin schminguin…I don’t care WHAT any of these Agency 5′s have promised, it sure looks like Penguin are trying to kill eBooks deader than a doornail from where I sit.
I waited for MONTHS for Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead to make it to the Kindle store last year, and when they did I picked them up for $9.99. As of now, the Agency Model price is now $27.99. Mass market paperback is $9.99.
Of course they have RENAMED the ebook “Hardcover Centennial Edition”, but doesn’t that give them the right to price it the SAME as the actual Hardcover (which CAN be re-sold and/or loaned out)? When the paperback is $9.99?
Oh and they BLOCK text-to-speech on the Kindle edition, yet the Kindle edition is priced nearly $5 HIGHER than the abridged audiobook.
I just don’t get it, obviously.
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Comments:
How much NOT to have to read Ann Rand’s belabored pontification? As I see it, this particular price increase is doing the world a service. Maybe they’ll increase the price of the Twilight series next. We can hope.
Your mileage may vary.
Rob Preece
Publisher
I cannot believe some of the contradictions that are coming out of the traditional publishing business when it comes to e-books.
It’s a free for all and seems to reflect a lack of real strategy. The agency agreement is not supposed to increase prices.
I live in hope that some kind of rationality will prevail before the industry implodes.
@Rob: Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead were very influential works in the 20th century. Thinking it’s a good thing to erect barriers that inhibit people from reading these works is on par with conservatives wanting to ban Origin of the Species. Hiding ideas is not good for society. It doesn’t teach people to think critically. Everyone should want more influential works to be cheaper and more accessible, since they clearly hold some importance. Whether you want to criticize it or praise it, no good comes from shoving certain literature into the shadows, hoping no one will be looking for it there.
Penquin is going to find that, in accordance with Rand’s beloved capitalism, no one is going to buy those ebooks for $28.
PS. I really liked her novels, though I don’t particularly share her philosophy.
Fair enough, Spider. As a prophet of profit (and intellectual property), though, I think Rand would love high prices.
Rob Preece
I’m glad I picked them up with 100 Micropay rebate at Fictionwise when they were on sale there.
I don’t recall any of the Agency 5 making the claim that that the reason why they were switching pricing models was to ensure that the price of ebooks would go done. If you think the ebook prices are outrageous, then don’t buy them.
I love this. No one will pay this,and Penguin will look really stupid. Which they are.
This is a ridiculous joke, and will actually fuel the fire AGAINST the Big 5. What idiots!!
Ayn Rand died long ago. I believe she would find it obscene that publishers mooch off her work long after her death.
There is zero benefit to society when copyright extends past an authors death. Let literary works return to the commons from which they are formed.
Ayn Rand believed in people get paid a fair price for THEIR intellectual and physical efforts. She certainly would be appalled to see today’s corporations buying political favors and getting endless sweetheart extensions of copyright so they could suck money from the public while producing nothing.