I got a Kindle EReader just the other day. I thought it might be a fun way to keep up with books as they come out Stateside, and see what was new, and save on shipping costs. Also our book club reads somewhat hard to find titles sometimes, and this might save time in ordering books, just 'poof' there they are on the Kindle!
And so for my first book purchase I wanted the latest Sookie Stackhouse novel, Dead Reckoning, which comes out May 3rd, when I will be back in Norway, having just missed the release date in the US.
WTF? They are charging more for the Kindle version than the hardback on Amazon!!!!!!!!!
That's just EVIL. Apparently that is the publisher's doing, no Amazon's. Seriously? $16 for a book in a digital format? Highway robbery. No paper, no delivery costs, nothing. MORE than the hardback!!!!
Bastards.
Not that I want to defend the pricing situation for ebooks -- which wouldn't be half as bad if you could lend them out and resell them -- but it looks to me like it's only 29 cents cheaper for the hardcover (ostensibly a discounted price), which doesn't include shpping (though it is available for free shipping).
ReplyDeleteI've assumed book pricing has been completely separate from production costs for a while now. Plus, I've been reading ebooks for about a decade and the prices certainly seem better than they used to be.
My concern is whether you'll actually be able to purchase it (or download it) once your back in Norway.... Stupid regional availability issues!
Ren, well, it's a bit of a wierd situation but as far as buying books from the US, no problem, I have an adress in the US and a credit card based here, so it's not a problem. (Works on iTunes, too.) I was hoping to buy books from the UK, but I get blocked, however, a work around is to change the country of my Kindle account to the UK (using my aunt's adress in London) and then I can get UK books too. Only thing is that I then have to change back to the US again later. I was hoping that would be eaiser.....
ReplyDeleteYeah, a friend commented on that recently, the latest Feist book (fantasy, went downhill after his debut novel imo) and all the reviews said it was an ok book, and then gave it a 1 on amazon, because they were selling it for 30$, they relented and reduced it to 11$ which is good.
ReplyDeleteAnd a very large part of the cost of paper books is printing, binding and shipping (also materials) so saying that a price that is mainly due to physical requirements and technological and limitations of the past these new items should cost way more then they need to? Of course they want to maximize profit, but the type of strong arm tactics and use of market position to force lousy options on the consumers just doesn't sit right with me.
The only thing publishers are useful for with e-books is marketing and supplying an editor, both of which can be done outside the publishing system, though there are problems involved in doing that.
Bottom line though, is that ebooks should always cost significantly less then paper books (while I love tech and gadgets etc, I also love the tactile part of reading books, and as long as the dead tree versions are cheaper too, I see little point in changing that).
(I should probably rewrite that since my mind tends to wander while I write instead of finishing up 1 thought at a time, but I wont)
My Kindle Amazon page says it's only 14.99! Also, all of the rest in the series seem to be around 7 or 8 dollars. I think they know that you aren't in the USA. Unless there's some kind of tax. . .
ReplyDeleteOMG...don't even get me started....I have such major issues with the book publishers (and Amazon for allowing it) jacking up the prices. I'm on my 2nd Kindle) but I remember when the 6.99 price for most books reeled me in and now they cost more than printed books. It's insane. Either that or I'm just spoiled!LOL!
ReplyDeleteI wanted the Nook this time around...drool...pretty...you can see magazines in them and/or craft books as it has color but it's a lot lighter than an ipad and you can also download library books as it accepts ePUB format (as opposed to Kindle/Amazon which only takes MOBI) but I can't handle the backlight...at all. Plus Amazon does have more books availabe. Don't forget to always check the free/cheap ones as sometimes they do have good deals (most classics are free and there are some self published authors that if you can get past typing error since they don't have a publisher/proof-reader are not bad)
I have to stick with my Kindle as my carpal tunnel has gotten worse and holding large tomes is no longer an option, but yeah...kind of annoying having to pay more than I would for a paperback and almost as much as a hardback.
Also...don't know if you know...but there's this program or softwear (never know what to call them!LOL) called CALIBRE that you can dowload and besides storing your ebooks if you have ebooks in another format (lit., pdf, epub, etc.) it will convert them for you and put them into your kindle.
I've been killing time reading her other two series (Haper Connely/Grave X & the Shakespeare/Lily Bard ones)
That's baloney. On the publisher's part, that is. I just downloaded a new release and it was at least $5 cheaper on Kindle than for the hardcover. The saving grace of Kindle is that older releases have some very decent prices.
ReplyDeleteI found out that, at least for me, trying to use a guidebook on the Ereader is a waste. You want to flip through your Lonely Planet, and the e-thingy doesn't flip very well. Works great for a novel though, something you work through sequentially.
ReplyDeleteI got the hate thing going with the pricing too. If I felt like the authors were the ones benefitting from the screwing I'd feel better about it, but I suspect it's just the publisher putting a little shine on the balance sheet.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI was looking for Norway expat blogs and came across yours! If you read JA Kronath's blog New bie's Guide To Publishing he has detailed why traditional publishers are intentionally overpricing e-books to discourage people from buying them since indie authors can undercut their massive overhead and still make a better profit by selling their books for less than $5. So...it's annoying....
Welcome, Faith. Thanks for the tip, too. I thought there was more to it.....
ReplyDelete