Hi, there! Long time reader, first time poster, here.
I've been buying exclusively from Fictionwise for about the last four years or so -- I just really hate the idea of having my bookshelf spread out across 3 or 4 different sites, and I like the discounts and rebates that Fictionwise offers. I frequently compare the prices at Fictionwise with ereader.com, mobipocket.com, and booksonboard.com, and I've usually found that the base price is the same across the board, with the difference being what kind of discount you can get from the various sites. There are occasional differences, but for the most part, they're pretty comparable. (I've never checked on Amazon's Kindle prices, since I don't have one.) Lately, I've been noticing a lot of books with prices outrageously out of line -- books that are brand-new in paperback format, that have never even been published in hardback, are being sold in e-format for anywhere between $14 to $25, and again, this price is usually the same at all four websites, although one of them might have a particular book available at regular price. I went back and forth with Fictionwise about this issue -- since I spend so much money with them, I thought they'd be more likely to listen than the other sites -- and what I was basically told is that the publishers set the prices and they have absolutely no control over it. Their last e-mail to me said:
Quote:
If you believe this to be unfair, please contact the book's publisher.
The publishers set the prices.
We've been telling the publishers this for years, but the more that they hear from real live consumers the more quickly they will get the message.
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Most of the books that I'm referring to are published by Macmillan or one of its subsidiaries. I sent an e-mail to as many of the address I could find on the contact pages for those various subs, but never did receive any response. It was a long e-mail, so I won't post the whole thing, but here are a few choice bits:
Quote:
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I started doing a little digging, both through my wish list and through the Fictionwise site, and I found that a large quantity of your books are listed for $14, despite the fact that many of them have only ever been published in mass market paperback. Quite frankly, I find this completely reprehensible. In fact, I consider it to be price gouging. Why would you set the price of an electronic book, which has absolutely no costs for paper, ink, binding, shipping, storage, etc., at almost double what you're charging for a print copy? I completely understand and support the practice of pricing an ebook higher when the corresponding print copy is in hardcover. I understand that you wouldn't want to undercut the sales of your hardcover books by making it available in ebook at a substantially smaller cost, but I cannot understand how you can set the price of a book that has never even been published in hardcover so high. [. . .] When doing a search on Fictionwise for books published by "Macmillan" and "Palgrave Macmillan", which actually includes many of the other Macmillan imprints, I found that out of 437 books listed, only 10 of them sell for less than $12! This is completely ridiculous.
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Then, when browsing on this forum, I found this post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...1&postcount=71
So I'm not the only person who's noticed this trend. Anyone have any ideas about who we can annoy to get this issue rectified? The more people we can get to speak out against this, the more likely anything will actually change. (Ok, that was Captain Obvious speaking, but seriously, how the heck to we go about getting heard here?)
On another note, what is Mobipocket (OD) vs. (PX)? I'm not familiar with this, and I'm wondering if the fact that FW doesn't sell OD books anymore is why some prices have jumped. I have a bunch of Janet Evanovich books on my wishlist, and I would swear they used to be priced at $14, but now they're $18.95 (not including my club discount). I'm pretty sure that some of the prices on my other wishlist items have jumped up too, which is the first time I've seen anything go
up in price!
(PS - I just noticed there's been no activity on this thread for a month -- perhaps I should have chosen a different thread for my rant. ;-))