Thread: Amazons upcoming tablet and their unique quantities of free ebooks
View Single Post
Old 08-21-2011, 11:08 AM   #9
Nate the great
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Nate the great ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Nate the great's Avatar
 
Posts: 12,375
Karma: 23555235
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: DC Metro area
Device: Shake a stick plus 1
Quote:
Originally Posted by DuskyRose View Post
If I find a book free at Amazon, odds are it's free elsewhere if it's on offer at the other stores as well. And if it's not free at the other site at the same time, I find that it will be soon. So a lot, if not most, freebies aren't limited to Amazon at all.

I think you're assuming that it's Amazon who's making the decision to offer a book for free, rather than the author or the publisher. If it's from one of the Agency Six, then they're certainly deciding that for themselves. I don't see why other authors wouldn't do that as well if they think it's in their best interest in order to build up a fan base and advertise their own work.

I haven't seen anything anywhere that suggests that Amazon is the one choosing the freebies to offer and then paying the author for each download anyway. Which is what they'd have to do to make the book a "loss leader".

What evidence do you have that the freebies actually are Amazon's decisions to make, and that they're losing money on them?
Oh, I doubt Amazon are losing money on the digital content; the reproduction and distribution costs are too low.

And I think the free ebooks are the idea of Amazon, even if Amazon didn't lower the price themselves. They're using the same model for mp3s and for the free daily Android app.
Nate the great is offline   Reply With Quote