Hilary Mantel won the Man Booker prize this week with "Wolf Hall" a historical novel about Thomas Cromwell. It looks very good, and I'd like to read it.
Waterstones responded to the win with a decent £5 reduction off the dead tree version (it's a bit niche - not Dan Brown). No prizes for guessing that the eBook version is still retailing at £15.19 - only £1.20 more than the dead tree version, but hey we are talking principles here!
I sent an e-mail to Waterstones, and after four days got the standard response, you know the one...
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I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy with the price difference
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and
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in the future there will be reductions and promotions as the item becomes more popular
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Barely worthy of comment as we've seen the same letter many times before. It is cheaper in WHSmiths for those that can't wait, and for those who can it is published in the US next week.
Waterstones need to get their act together. Their new site is much improved, their selection is good, but the Kindle is landing and they are going to suffer very, very soon if they don't sharpen their pricing. As to the "when the item becomes more popular" line - Bezos has said this week that he sells 48 Kindle copies for every 100 dead tree copies.
WAKE UP WATERSTONES!
Excuse the rant
amjb