FallofGiantsDontBlinkcollage The New York Times has a report on two Amazon e-books that cost more than their hardcover versions. Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, published by Penguin, costs $19.39 in hardcover and $19.99 in e-book form on Amazon.com. Likewise, Don’t Blink by James Patterson and Howard Roughan, published by Little, Brown, & Co., is $14 in hardcover, $14.99 in e-book form.

Predictably, these titles are racking up the one-star reviews on Amazon, and it goes without saying around these parts that the blame can be laid squarely at the foot of agency pricing, in which publishers are allowed to set their own, non-discountable prices for e-books. Though not all consumers are aware of that, despite Amazon’s best efforts:

“Amazon’s bait-and-switched us here,” said Janice Dinse, 63, a medical transcriptionist in Gastonia, N.C., who complained about the price on the novel by Mr. Patterson. “When I first got my Kindle, all the books were $9.99. I’m not going to pay for a book on my Kindle that’s more than $9.99. I just refuse to do it. I could buy the hardcover for that if I go to Sam’s or Wal-Mart.”

However, the joke may be on consumers; there still seem to be plenty of people willing to pay that price for e-books. As of Monday, Fall of Giants was #7 on the Kindle best-seller list.

(Found via Daemon’s Books.)

11 COMMENTS

  1. In the Amazon Kindle store for Canada, Don’t Blink by James Patterson and Howard Roughan is not available, and Fall of Giants by Ken Follett is available for $9.99.

    So why is Penguin kind to Canadians, and Little, Brown, & Co. not?

    Keith

  2. Firstly … do people really believe these best seller listings ? really ? yeah right …

    Secondly, we have said it before and I say it again – this crazy pricing policy that is being pursued is just so stupid ! It is not just depressing sales right now, it is contributing to a reputation that eBooks are expensive. Having spent several decades in business I know that reputations like this take years to counter, once they get a hold among s customer base.

    And when you add that growing reputation to the other negatives of buying eBooks such as format confusion, no lending, DRM, permanency issues, it will dampen the progress of eBook sales for a considerable time.

    Many, including me, have opined that eBooks will explode in sales in the coming years and all the rest – but I believe that this is predicated on the sorting out of these present issues. If these issues DON’T get sorted I can see the whole progress toward eBooks being held back significantly.

  3. hm. when i see that kind of price structure, unlike ms. dinse i don’t think, “ooh. wal-mart.” i think. hm. once again, penguin can’t have my money. i have a list of random house titles on my ‘to-read’ list that is far longer than my rather long arm. random house can have my money instead.

  4. I agree these prices suck, the publishers are going off the list price of the hardcover and saying you’re getting the ebook cheaper. They always fail to take into account the street price those hardcovers might have.

    Just as bad (even worse?) are when pubs, Hachette is especially guilty, charge anywhere from $1 to $6 more for an ebook than the current paperback list price.

  5. That is ridiculous. Just plain ridiculous; ebooks are supposed to be about saving the consumer money. Jacking up the price to above paperback costs leads me to think that the publisher is doing it in order to drive down ebook demand and make every go back to paper, sort of like a tire company eliminating an efficient public transportation system in a large city, in order to sell more tires.

  6. Publishers are experimenting with price points. They want to transform the digital model into a simile of the print model. I bet they’re going with the higher price point for a bit and then drop to a lower price point. This will emulate the hardcover release followed by the paperback release. Publishers are in the business of selling and they’re going to look to maximize profits.

  7. It’s dishonest to cry about the hardcover price without pointing out that it’s a heavily-discounted sale price, and not the regular list price. The hardcover regular price is $36.00, meaning that the e-book is almost a 50% discount from the regular price.

    And, as a side note, if an extra sixty cents is your make-or-break decider, then what the hell are you doing with a $200 e-reader?

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