$12.99

[jmiked]

(I am surprised that ebooks have typos that physical books do not.  Physical books are in electronic format before printing.)

"Recent" books, yes. The vast majority of books are not in any electronic format, such as pretty much anything before 1985 or so.

The typos seem to be mainly from the scanning/OCR process where nobody does any checking on the conversion. I've even purchased a book that turned out to have all the strike-outs from the editing process included in the text. It's just carelessness and a lack of concern with making a quality product, combined with not checking the result on an actual reading device before publishing.

Mike

[Elk]

This makes sense for older books, but I have seen many errors in new ebooks that I would not expect to see in hardcopy.

Perhaps I should start comparing. The problems could be in the physical books also, but this seems unlikely.

[BTackitt]

This makes sense for older books, but I have seen many errors in new ebooks that I would not expect to see in hardcopy.

Perhaps I should start comparing. The problems could be in the physical books also, but this seems unlikely.

I would say that when I was reading DTBs, I would find typos,/errors in 4/5 books I read.

[jmiked]

This makes sense for older books, but I have seen many errors in new ebooks that I would not expect to see in hardcopy.

I have seen this also. I can't explain it. I have converted quite a few books from word processor format to MOBI/ePub, and haven’t seen any problems when using a "clean" source.

Mike

[mooshie78]

Once a price is set on an ebook, I don't see it going down because overstock isn't an issue for online retailers when dealing with electronic content.  Costco and other retailers reduce prices on books to free up retail space for new books once consumers loose interest in existing titles.

Prices on ebooks in the Kindle store go down all the time.  I just saw one drop from $14.99 (I think maybe it was $12.99) to $9.99 over the past couple of weeks on one I was thinking of buying.  And that's one that still only available in hardcover.  A lot of others are priced higher and then drop to $6-8 when the cheap mass market paper back comes out.  Some drop just because sales are lagging.

There's no stock to clear out, but publishers still want to price books at the optimal range to sell the most copies in the long run.  So lots that are above $9.99 drop to that or lower once the print paper back is out etc.  I have no problem with that.  I never bought hard covers and waited for cheap paperbacks in the past, so I can wait for the e-book price to drop when the paperback comes out now for ebooks that are above $10.  Anything that stays above $10 I generally just don't bother reading or just check the paper book out from the library.


Now if you mean we won't see e-book "bargain" sections with books from big name authors for $2-3 like you see in clearance/bargain book sections in book stores then I agree.  Pressure to sell physical stock isn't an issue as you note, so we won't see clearance sales.  But it seems like most mainstream fiction on the Kindle eventually falls to $9.99 or below at least with some exceptions.  Non-fiction seems to have a lot more books above $10.

[Jan Strnad]

I won't pay $12.99. In fact, I'll seldom pay $9.99. There's too much good stuff out there legally for free or three bucks or five bucks for me to pay that kind of money. My job pays me a crappy salary (school district) so I'm cheap. I have a Kindle and also a Kobo. The Kobo gets me epubs which can be checked out from the library, so that's another avenue for legal, free ebooks.

[history_lover]

"Recent" books, yes. The vast majority of books are not in any electronic format, such as pretty much anything before 1985 or so.

The typos seem to be mainly from the scanning/OCR process where nobody does any checking on the conversion. I've even purchased a book that turned out to have all the strike-outs from the editing process included in the text. It's just carelessness and a lack of concern with making a quality product, combined with not checking the result on an actual reading device before publishing.

Mike

Even recent books can have OCR errors, though I'm not sure why. The Borgia Bride by Jeanne Kalogridis was riddled with them and it was first published in print in 2001 and re-released in 2005 with the Kindle edition made available in 2007. It was definitely OCR errors, not just usual typos because it had things like a "1" instead of a capital "I". Or sometimes the quote symbol would merge with the first letter of the sentence and form a completely different letter. It was pretty ridiculous.

[tiggeerrific]

I pay the $12.99 put never go over that price I also get many free books.I really dont mind paying it because I will always have the book where before when buying the book I would read it and give them away. I never went to the library to get books I always brought my books.I am the type of person who dosent like reading from a book that others have read from and who I have no idea what germs are on that book. That is why I love my kindle

[r1chard]

[cyclefreaksix]

I guess it's lucky 13 (dollars) then 

Yeah, but lucky for who??

[Fireheart223]

Yes, it has been discussed. . . . .some might say ad nauseum. . . . . I buy a book if it seems worth the price, and don't if it doesn't.  I am not "infuriated" because that seems like too much work.

Same for me. If its one I really want to read, I'll pony up the $12.99, or more even if necessary (I did pay the $19.99 for Fall of Giants, but loved it so much that it was worth every penny to me, I must say.) But if there are some that I'm not all that excited about, I'll hold off and see if the price drops. Of course, I wish that in general the ebook prices were cheaper, but I'm not going to stop buying them, since otherwise what's even the point of having a Kindle. There are enough free and bargain priced books out there to even out the score, in my opinion.

[mikev]

There's a lot of stuff going on here that will need to be resolved before we can begin to see some standard pricing that consumers are willing to pay.

Part of the problem is that book prices have been way to low for years and now they're butting heads with ebook prices that appear to be to high.  Who pays cover price on a new hardback?  The book industry is going through it's own transformation just like the music industry did in recent years, only it's a lot more complicated.  What we need is the "ebook mp3" standard with no DRM combined with generic readers.  This is what will really bring change, until then all you can do as a consumer is speak with your wallet and not pay.

The publishing industry is a big ugly monster, it has been ripping off consumers and authors for years, and hopefully it's days are numbered.  Remember those $100+ college textbooks?  A no DRM ebook standard would blow that crap right out of the water, I can't wait.

[history_lover]

There's a lot of stuff going on here that will need to be resolved before we can begin to see some standard pricing that consumers are willing to pay.

Part of the problem is that book prices have been way to low for years and now they're butting heads with ebook prices that appear to be to high.  Who pays cover price on a new hardback?  The book industry is going through it's own transformation just like the music industry did in recent years, only it's a lot more complicated.  What we need is the "ebook mp3" standard with no DRM combined with generic readers.  This is what will really bring change, until then all you can do as a consumer is speak with your wallet and not pay.

The publishing industry is a big ugly monster, it has been ripping off consumers and authors for years, and hopefully it's days are numbered.  Remember those $100+ college textbooks?  A no DRM ebook standard would blow that crap right out of the water, I can't wait.

I totally 100% agree. But the publishers aren't going to give up that easy, I think we still have a long way to go before we see DRM-free ebook standards. ePub is considered the open ebook standard and I do wish Kindle would use it but it still supports DRM.

[amafan]

Demand for content is going digital faster than the publishers can cope with it.  It happened with multi-media and it will happen with books as well.  The publishers are dealing with a changing market and they don't understand how it works and how to make money when their entire business model is centered around manufacturing and physical distribution, two things that are unneeded when digital content is delivered OTA.  When they realize they are not going to save their bacon by applying the same principles that governed the old business to the new business they will change, not before. 

Put books you want but think are too expensive in your wishlist and wait until they reach a comfortable price before you buy.  The publishers see all this data and eventually will come around and play ball.

Go Giants!

[AmberLi]

Demand for content is going digital faster than the publishers can cope with it.  It happened with multi-media and it will happen with books as well.  The publishers are dealing with a changing market and they don't understand how it works and how to make money when their entire business model is centered around manufacturing and physical distribution, two things that are unneeded when digital content is delivered OTA.  When they realize they are not going to save their bacon by applying the same principles that governed the old business to the new business they will change, not before. 

Put books you want but think are too expensive in your wishlist and wait until they reach a comfortable price before you buy.  The publishers see all this data and eventually will come around and play ball.

Go Giants!

Now I'm pretty much an ebook newbie, but in the 2 months I've had my kindle, I haven't really seen any prices change on books I'm interested in... how often does a 12.99 book drop to 9.99 or 9.99 to something below? And I don't mean 9.78 either 

[BTackitt]

Book prices drop and raise for weird reasons.. Sometimes it feels like there is no reason. Publisher thinks, "Oh I'm having a good hair day, all book prices can be dropped $2." "Crum, no coffee in the pot, all prices go up $3 because I'm in a pissy mood."
Honestly for new releases, sometimes they are prelisted @ $15, and drop to $9.99 by the date they are delivered, sometimes they stay above $12 for a month or 2 after publication, sometimes 3-4 months after. Some publishers don't drop the e-book price until the paperback becomes available because they want sales to go to the HB copies.

[JenniferBecton]

IMO, publishers are making a lot of mistakes right now wrt to ebooks. Most buyers take into account what they think it costs to make a product, and they know that a bunch of 0's and 1's is cheaper than paper, ink, and shipping. I believe publishers are afraid of losing their grip on the traditional book market--paperbacks and hardbacks--and are raising prices to keep readers buying paper.

Having said that, I am still researching the market price of ebooks, so even though I know paying the same for paper is inflated pricing, I have no idea where the ebook price will level out.

[LUW]

Let me give you guys a different perspective. I was just over at Amazon's and bought 3 books, and though my K3 is not with me right now, when I get home in about 3 to 5 minutes those three books will be in my hands. Before the K3 it would take 3 weeks for me to get them, and I would pay around $20 for S&H.

So, is it abusive that publishers are charging almost the same for the e-book and paperback versions? Sure is, there's no way to justify that. But to me, personally, is it a problem? No, I honestly can't say it is. I was doing the math and basically my K3 will pay for itself after I bought around 25 to 30 books. I'm fully aware that for North Americans this math will not apply, but for people out of NA (specially) and Europe, the Kindle is the best thing since rock & roll if you like to read a lot. Even with prices of an e-book being basically the same as the price of a pocketbook.

[J.R. Chase]

I may be wrong, but $12.99 seems like a cash grab...

[jmiked]

I may be wrong, but $12.99 seems like a cash grab...

I think it's called the free market. 


Mike

[auge_28]

Here is a book I want:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YUC3YE/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1H1ERB10WRBCAGFEV37M&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

If I am reading this correctly the Kindle version is nearly 90 cents more than the hardback.
This is not a problem for me as I have plenty to read until it goes down to a price I am comfortable with (about $10) , and I am sure there are plenty of fans out there that think $15 is a great price for a new Stephen King book.

Also these are amazon prices, the price tag is $27.99, so for a lot of people who buy their books at brick & motor stores will be saving $13 if they order it from Kindle store.

So maybe this is a matter of perspective.