Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
Wild guess here, but the $45 price on Fictionwise might simply be a typo of an intended price of $4.50.
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I hope this is the case. Because up until recently it's been pretty expensive and I was hoping the price would drop. At $4.50... hello next purchase!
Just checked BooksonBoard and it's currently around $45 there too. So probably not a typo
That's ridiculous, especially given the Kindle price. I'm sure it's not the fault of either of those sites, but if it's because of some deal between the publisher and Amazon that really sucks.
The list price is $50 at Sony Connect as well, $50 at ebooks.com. Direct from Random House? $50 also.
I just don't see how anything that can lead to this sort of pricing that limits a very popular book to a reasonable price to one specific retailer for one specific device only available in a single country can be good for ebooks in any way. As an issue the potential monopoly that the Kindle could have is a much more significant issue for ebooks/epublishing than cost compared to print books. I'm hoping that in this case it's all some kind of bizzare error at Random House's end and the other sites prices are automatically tied into that. But still, it's something that really concerns me.
I didn't agree with some of the posts early in this thread stating that higher prices will lead to piracy, but this kind of stuff makes me rethink that. I've bought and owned various editions of The Stand three or four times in printed formats in the past. To know find out how much I'm expecting to pay for it if I don't own a certain device, live in a certain country and shop at a certain store compared to how cheap those who do meet those criteria can get it doesn't exactly make me feel like a criminal for choosing to look elsewhere.
I'd love to hear a comment on this from a retailer or publisher. If it's not a mistake and the pricing persists I think it's a subject worthy of it's own thread as it's a fair bit off topic from the issue initially being discussed in this one.