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Originally Posted by Alexander
Edit: Find some more comparisons further down this thread.
Details are sketchy at this point, but "librie guy" from the Yahoo! Librie list managed to take a peak at the forthcoming Sony Connect Store (host currently unavailable), and it appears - well, we didn't expect anything else - that Sony's proprietary e-books will cost you extra.
Example: Alan Dean Foster's The Light Years Beneath My Feet
- Retail hardcover: $23.95
- Amazon hardcover: $16.16
- Amazon Mobipocket e-book: $17.95
- Amazon Adobe Reader e-book: $11.67
- Amazon Microsoft e-book: $11.67
- Sony Connect e-book: $16.16 (includes a 10% "CONNECT discount")
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Actually, it was I (Gameboy70) who posted this on the Yahoo Group, not Librie Guy. I pointed out on a follow-up post that Connect prices seem to be in flux.
Crime and Punishment was listed for $5.95 last week when the site when live for a split second and was cached by an astute YG member. This week, the same title listed for $3.00. Sony and their respective content providers may be trying to gauge public reaction to different price points. Fluctuating the prices from the outset also allows them to reach an acceptable price without losing face.
Bear in mind, however, that the lower limit of what Sony can charge is really in the hands of publishers, not Sony. Typical publisher discounts to booksellers are 30-45% -- most often 40%. Megastores like B&N may be able to get over 50% in some cases by purchasing in volume. A small independent bookstore can only stock a few copies of an average title at one time. A chain can buy dozens in a single order, then ship a few to each of their individual stores. While here, we don't have the same issues with physical inventory, and Sony's probably getting a "click-through" commission, I doubt it's more than 50%. If Random House sells a hardcover-only book for $30, they're unlikely to settle for a $10 click-through on a $23 eBook sale price. Notice that
Crime and Punishment is public domain, so Sony has the lattitude to experimentally cut the price in half. They wouldn't be able to do that with Alan Dean Foster's book. So yes, the margins on Connect are artifically high, unreasonably so, but not inexplicably.