Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I don't get e-book pricing

So, Barnes & Noble announced today that Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 is now available on the Nook.

I love that book, and so was excited about the opportunity to get it as an e-book. And then I saw the price. $10?!?!?!?!

Really, B&N?

Your own website has the trade paperback for $7.

Manufacturing and distribution costs are significantly lower for e-books, so why the markup? Just because it's new?

I'm reminded of 6 months or so ago when a bunch of old Star Wars books were released. These are books that were last printed 15-20 years ago, and the hit the Nook at $8 - $10 price points.

Even if it's newly released, I have a hard time believing that an e-book should be priced the same as the brand-new cover price of a trade paperback.

3 comments:

  1. http://www.ebook3000.com/Ray-Bradbury---Fahrenheit-451_125247.html
    ~whistles~

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  2. I'm fully aware that there are, um, other sources for a lot of these books.

    I'm more generally complaining about the wackiness and disparity in the pricing models.

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  3. I have that hang-up, too - but I am slowly seeing additional value - syncing last read page across devices, the x-ray reference feature, cloud storage, etc. I'm not completely sold and the only books I have bought have been $7 or less - and only if they are cheaper than the dead tree edition. Baen has a ton of free books.

    http://www.brickolore.com/2011/12/free-books.html
    http://www.brickolore.com/2011/12/free-books.html

    ReplyDelete