Just looked at getting “Crossing the Chasm” by Geoffrey A. Moore at Amazon.com and noticed that a “new” Kindle version is $13.71 while the paperback version is $10.90. (Screencap isn’t working so I’ll try the link to the book here. I’ve also noticed that some Kindle books are upwards of $18-$24 (or $29.67 for “The Innovation Playbook” – SERIOUSLY?!?!?)
This is bullshit, people. I may not represent the bulk of the market but I can say that I purchase, on average, 2 books a week and due to my travel my entire book collection as of late has been electronic. One of the big selling points for me has been the $9.99 common pricetag that Kindle books have.
Now, the capitalist in me believes that the authors/publishers should be able to charge what they want but the consumer and businessperson in me believes that these higher prices are simply a result of two things:
1) An antiquated business model being forced upon consumers
2) Ignorance as to why we’re actually buying
Do a PDF search on many of the popular business books and you’ll see many who have violated copyright and are offering scanned versions of these books for free, which can be read on an iPad, Kindle, or PC. As a consumer or a businessperson, I see ZERO justification for pricing ANY ebook above $9.99 just as Apple has figured out that the price for any song is between $0.99 and $1.29 TOPS. Supply has been increased dramatically and all of the traditional “middle man” costs have been removed – there’s no reason why anyone can’t make a great profit at $9.99 for a book, especially when the velocity of cash flow on it is so much higher.
Here’s my other beef: I’ll bite the bullet this time on the $13.71 Kindle price, but I know it’s sending the wrong message to the publishers that I’m somehow “willing” to buy at this price. I know some egotistical idiot author is out there as well using price as a way to elevate the perceived value of their book vs. those of competitors and some idiot publisher is bragging to this egotistical author about how (s)he can get a higher price for their book on Amazon than others do. Both of these are wrong, but there’s little way I can actually make that known unless I meet these authors in person (which tends to happen quite regularly). Surely they have no clue how many “free” versions of their books are instead downloaded as an alternative to their $18-$24 Kindle price.
In the meantime, my suggestion is to let every e-book be $9.99 or less, and let the actual content of the book be the gauge of how good it is against others on the market, just as a song on iTunes by Bruno Mars vs. one by Lyle Lovett are priced the same.
