03-13-2012, 05:22 PM | #1 |
Guru
Posts: 808
Karma: 2260766
Join Date: Apr 2008
Device: Kindle Oasis 2
|
Perfect example of absurd agency pricing
I know, I know, everyone is tired of this topic, and I'm largely preaching to the choir, but I just needed to get this off my chest.
Have a look at this book. It's a TV tie in novel (for a very niche show) of about 300 MMP pages. It came out in 1997. The show has been off the air since 1998. It's a niche product for a niche market. I checked out a sample -- they actually did a nice job converting and formatting the Kindle edition. When the book came out, the mmp price (these books were only released in mmp) was $6.99. (ETA: Actually they were $5.99. Found the back cover of another book in the series.) You can buy a new copy now through the Az marketplace for $7.58 shipped. Hachette Book Group's list price for the Kindle edition? $17.99, ever so magnanimously reduced to $9.99. For a 15 year old backlist title in a niche of a niche. All of the available Highlander ebooks are priced the same, which is demonstrably out of touch with the going prices for TV-tie in ebooks. (Stargate: Atlantis - $4.99, Stargate SG-1, $6.36, Star Trek, $1.99 to $7.99 for the most part, Supernatural, $6.39, Charmed, $5.99, CSI, mostly $7.99, Spartacus, $6.39. If these books were $4.99 or less for Kindle, I would buy at least a few of them, so I can replace the old mmp's I've been hanging on to. At $9.99 each, my reaction is entirely different, a number "colorful metaphors" as Captain Kirk might say. I'm sure I'm not the only fan of this series who feels this way, and once again, Big Publishing's insane ideas about pricing are getting in the way of it making actual, you know, profits. Last edited by whitearrow; 03-13-2012 at 06:31 PM. |
03-13-2012, 05:36 PM | #2 |
Addict
Posts: 235
Karma: 1202269
Join Date: Mar 2008
Device: Kindle
|
Then don't buy it?
I don't see the problem here. Businesses may price things as they wish. Consumers may choose to or not choose to buy them. Myself, since it's just a popcorn piece of fiction likely written to a formulaic blue print sent out by a managing editor, I'd probably opt for that $.01 option and then leave it in a bus station when I was done |
Advert | |
|
03-13-2012, 05:43 PM | #3 | ||
Guru
Posts: 808
Karma: 2260766
Join Date: Apr 2008
Device: Kindle Oasis 2
|
Well, duh, I'm not. Wasn't really the point.
Quote:
Quote:
(And in case you missed it, I already own the MMP.) |
||
03-13-2012, 06:03 PM | #4 | |
Philosopher
Posts: 2,034
Karma: 18736532
Join Date: Jan 2012
Device: Kindle Paperwhite 2 gen, Kindle Fire 1st Gen, Kindle Touch
|
Quote:
|
|
03-13-2012, 06:10 PM | #5 |
Omnivorous
Posts: 3,281
Karma: 27978909
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Rural NW Oregon
Device: Kindle Voyage, Kindle Fire HD, Kindle 3, KPW1
|
You know, it almost seems that the big publishers *don't want* ebooks to succeed. Nah.. That can't be.
|
Advert | |
|
03-13-2012, 06:13 PM | #6 | |
Wizard
Posts: 1,516
Karma: 2567610
Join Date: Oct 2009
Device: Kindles - Keyboard, Fire, 2-US, iPhone, iPAD
|
Quote:
I've never heard anybody claim that Publishers shouldn't be willing to charge a price for their work, if they wanted to raise their wholesale prices by 30000% they had every right to do that. They could have even set up their own webstores and sold books directly, which they have made anemic attempts to accomplish and which they largely suck at doing. That isn't what they did, they instead tried to lock retailers out of their own rights to price products however they saw fit. By and large Publishers have been reluctant to place backlist titles on the marketplace for low prices because those low prices cannibalize sales from the front list books. Why buy a current bestseller at $14.99 when you can have that 20 year old book with great reviews that you've never read for $3.99? It's the exact same reasoning behind why they tried their hardest to hinder the secondary book market years ago. |
|
03-13-2012, 06:18 PM | #7 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 75,917
Karma: 134368292
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
One of the problem with agency pricing for eBooks is it's helping the publishers keep paperback prices high so they can keep eBook prices high. $17.99 for a MMPB is absurd.
|
03-13-2012, 06:49 PM | #8 |
Nameless Being
|
The reality is that new books have always been expensive. It's just that there have been other options in the past, ranging from libraries to remainders to used books. That meant that books were available to pretty much everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status. I dread the day when the majority of titles are released as ebooks only, because the poor will have what they can read dictated to them based upon price and whether the publisher permits libraries to carry it. (There are a lot of people out there who would have to work an hour and a half for a $10 book, never mind a $20 book. For them, literacy would not be an option.)
|
03-13-2012, 06:56 PM | #9 | |
Wizard
Posts: 2,552
Karma: 3799999
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Foristell, Missouri, USA
Device: Nokia N800, PRS-505, Nook STR Glowlight, Kindle 3, Kobo Libra 2
|
Quote:
|
|
03-13-2012, 08:10 PM | #10 |
Geographically Restricted
Posts: 2,629
Karma: 14933353
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Perth, Australia
Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2
|
Not here in Australia. Retail is over AU$20 for paperbacks. But I do agree with what you say.
|
03-13-2012, 08:31 PM | #11 | |
Blue Captain
Posts: 1,595
Karma: 5000236
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Australia
Device: Kindle Keyboard 3G,Huawei Ideos X3,Kobo Mini
|
Quote:
|
|
03-13-2012, 08:38 PM | #12 |
Wizard
Posts: 2,552
Karma: 3799999
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Foristell, Missouri, USA
Device: Nokia N800, PRS-505, Nook STR Glowlight, Kindle 3, Kobo Libra 2
|
|
03-13-2012, 08:51 PM | #13 |
Resident Curmudgeon
Posts: 75,917
Karma: 134368292
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts
Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3
|
|
03-13-2012, 08:59 PM | #14 |
Geographically Restricted
Posts: 2,629
Karma: 14933353
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Perth, Australia
Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2
|
|
03-13-2012, 09:48 PM | #15 |
Guru
Posts: 808
Karma: 2260766
Join Date: Apr 2008
Device: Kindle Oasis 2
|
That was me The official Amazon price for the MMPB is $17.99, but I'm not sure that the book isn't out of print and the ones Amazon has aren't remainders or in some way considered "rare." That's why I cited $7.58 as the "new" price from the Az Marketplace.
|
Tags |
agency pricing, big publishing, stupidity |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Agency pricing strikes again | The Terminator | General Discussions | 38 | 09-12-2011 08:54 PM |
Non agency pricing - kobobooks.com | kiwipippa | Kobo Reader | 7 | 07-29-2011 03:25 PM |
Agency pricing | jbcohen | General Discussions | 71 | 03-04-2011 08:56 PM |
UK Agency Pricing? | suecsi | News | 22 | 11-03-2010 05:16 AM |
Agency pricing in Canada | ficbot | General Discussions | 1 | 04-09-2010 01:32 PM |