Everyone in the writing/publishing industry has been been sounding off on their views on the Amazon/Macmillan scandal, so I decided to add in my two cents.
I have had my kindle for about half a year now and absolutely love it. I have been introduced to several new authors through various deals that Amazon runs. It is a great way to find books that are no longer in print and it’s cheaper than buying printed books sometimes. On the other side of that, I will never take my kindle to read at the beach or the side of a pool and I will definitely never read it during marathon bubble bath sessions. I firmly believe that mass market paperbacks are priced low so that people can replace them easily in such cases.
So do I really care what the price of books on the kindle are? No not really. This is more of a publisher choice. I will say this, the most expensive book I have ever bought on the kindle was $9.99 and the majority of the books I check out are closer to $6.99. If publishers want to pull up the price for a book then let them, but the publisher should be aware that they may alienate their readers. There will always be loyal readers and they will pay whatever to read their favorite authors new book. (There are several authors I follow that could charge me $50 for a new book and I would gladly wait in line for hours to pay it.) When it comes to new authors or expanding established authors fan base, I don’t really want to spend that much on a book I may or may not like.
Do I think Amazon should have pulled what they pulled? No. Do I think Macmillan should increase prices? No, but they have that right. Do I think that both companies are going to be hurt by this? Sadly, yes.
What do you think?
As a side note, most books that I like on my kindle I end up buying the paper edition as well.
Leave a comment