Wasn't agency pricing supposed to mean the same prices everywhere?

[da_jane]

The difference in pricing depends on the taxes. Under Agency pricing, the base price is no different from retailer to retailer. How each retailer collects the taxes is differing and that is where you see the price differential.

How pricing is set today is actually dictated by Apple. Apple has required publishers to price based upon the physical retail price. So if the physical retail price is X, then the digital price is X.

From the Smashwords distribution email (and if you check the iBook pricing for digital books, it matches this pricing scheme):

If your book is only available in Hardcover, and the Hardcover price is under $22.00 (U.S.), then the maximum allowable price for your ebook is $9.99.

If your price is $22.01-$24.00, the maximum ebook price is $10.99;
$24.01-$25.00 is $11.99;
$25.01-$27.50 is $12.99;
$27.51-$30.00 is $14.99;
$30.01-$35.00 is $16.99;
$35.01-$40.00 is $19.99.

If your hardcover book is priced above $40.00, you can price your Apple ebook at any price you like.

[Blue Tyson]

And Apple's price is obfuscated, because on the internet you can't see what their various media products cost........

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by simplyparticular

Sony:
Random House - discounts of 5-30% off MSRP
Big 5 - MSRP + 5%

I can't tell if this is Sony is marking up 5% to cover the taxes they are required to collect, or if you also get charged the taxes, too. Anyone in the US buy from Sony lately?

No separate tax for me (though it'd be 6%). Though I'm only seeing the extra charge for HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster; Macmillan, Hachette, and Penguin titles are MSRP.

Originally Posted by simplyparticular

Kobo:
Big 5 - US MSRP + 9%
Random House - discounted 5-40% off MSRP

Again, I only seen HarperCollins and S&S as more expensive (with S&S at a 10% increase); Macmillan is MSRP, and I don't remember about the other two.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Yeah, you noticed that too?

Sony almost always is about 35 cents more than elsewhere, when I've noticed a price difference.

Well it was that way before, and not all publishers are on the agency model.

That (along with wireless) was what led me to get a Kindle 1 instead of a Sony reader 18 months or so ago. All the books I checked were the same a bit higher priced in the Sony store vs. the Kindle store. None were cheaper.

[Scott Nicholson]

News flash. Publishers anonymously (and no doubt reluctantly and gracefully) admit they are brilliant and made the perfect move by marrying the iPad...
http://www.idealog.com/blog/weve-had...y-for-suddenly

[Blue Tyson]

Heh. Apple and publishers et. al. have also failed at international distribution again.

Now there are a bunch more people to get pissed off at DRM and crack it and upload stuff though.

[simplyparticular]

Originally Posted by Blue Tyson

Heh. Apple and publishers et. al. have also failed at international distribution again.

Now there are a bunch more people to get pissed off at DRM and crack it and upload stuff though.

I'm all for blaming big corps when they're at fault but Apple and the publishers don't control international rights. Authors, through their agents, hold auctions for international translation, print and digital rights. Worldwide eBook distribution rights would require an overhaul of the entire author royalty/contract process.

[Blue Tyson]

Not what I am talking about.

Apple (and whoever else) could sell ebooks to the world, where they have rights, by just using a simple website download method.

The only places you can buy (or even see or read about) an ibook so to speak is if you have an iPad - which are available to a tiny number of people in one country.

Probably what? Numbers on the order of a billion people on the internet?

That's a significant distribution failure.

Google, it would seem from what we have read so far is going to approach that rather differently.