Comments on: Is $14.99 too high for a new release? http://kindlerama.com/is-14-99-too-high-for-a-new-release Tips and tricks for your Amazon Kindle Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:10:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Heidi http://kindlerama.com/is-14-99-too-high-for-a-new-release/comment-page-1#comment-1268 Heidi Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:11:01 +0000 http://kindlerama.com/?p=961#comment-1268 I don't think there is any question that price fixing in happening. It also reminds me a bit of the old 1980's tactic to get customers to get used to ATM banking. They argued it was for our convenience and we'd all love it and it would be FREE-- yet once offered and we were all hooked they began to charge for it. We should all have known $9.99 was too good to be true. I can't help my cynicism. I won't pay more than $9.99 for anything on my kindle. I can find it cheaper in hardback used if I have to or, God forbid, I can get it at the library! ;) I don’t think there is any question that price fixing in happening. It also reminds me a bit of the old 1980′s tactic to get customers to get used to ATM banking. They argued it was for our convenience and we’d all love it and it would be FREE– yet once offered and we were all hooked they began to charge for it.

We should all have known $9.99 was too good to be true. I can’t help my cynicism. I won’t pay more than $9.99 for anything on my kindle. I can find it cheaper in hardback used if I have to or, God forbid, I can get it at the library! ;)

]]> By: Soozzie http://kindlerama.com/is-14-99-too-high-for-a-new-release/comment-page-1#comment-1267 Soozzie Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:46:04 +0000 http://kindlerama.com/?p=961#comment-1267 I respectfully disagree about the licensing argument. I have been a lawyer for 25 years, so I realize that the kindle contract permits Amazon to effectively rescind ebooks from purchasers. However, there are good and appropriate reasons for this to be in a contract, even though the likelihood of it actually happening are extremely remote. I am grateful to Amazon for strong-arming publishers, and I had hoped it would stick to its guns in this dispute. It is in fact the only way that prices will stay down. We may say that we will read indie authors or whatever who charge less than major publishers, but that won't work when the Next Big Title comes out -- we will all want to have it. I believe that Amazon ah done its homework and sees the $9.99 price point as reasonable for all sides; there are a number of other authorities that think $4.99 is more like it. It seems quite obvious to me, based on Steve Jobs off the cuff remark to the WSJ about ibooks is that there is a little price-fixing going on, and a conspiracy to make it happen. Let's get the real story as to why Jobs says all ebooks will be priced the same $12.99-14.99 -- perhaps because he agreed to it in order to kill the kindle? I respectfully disagree about the licensing argument. I have been a lawyer for 25 years, so I realize that the kindle contract permits Amazon to effectively rescind ebooks from purchasers. However, there are good and appropriate reasons for this to be in a contract, even though the likelihood of it actually happening are extremely remote. I am grateful to Amazon for strong-arming publishers, and I had hoped it would stick to its guns in this dispute. It is in fact the only way that prices will stay down. We may say that we will read indie authors or whatever who charge less than major publishers, but that won’t work when the Next Big Title comes out — we will all want to have it. I believe that Amazon ah done its homework and sees the $9.99 price point as reasonable for all sides; there are a number of other authorities that think $4.99 is more like it. It seems quite obvious to me, based on Steve Jobs off the cuff remark to the WSJ about ibooks is that there is a little price-fixing going on, and a conspiracy to make it happen. Let’s get the real story as to why Jobs says all ebooks will be priced the same $12.99-14.99 — perhaps because he agreed to it in order to kill the kindle?

]]>