05-21-2008, 02:04 PM | #1 |
Actively passive.
Posts: 2,042
Karma: 478376
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: US
Device: Sony PRS-505/LC
|
Shadow Puppets
...by Orson Scott Card. $18-$20 everywhere (Sony, Mobipocket, Fictionwise), but $6.99 for Kindle Edition. I made a mistake buying the Sony. I should have gone with the ugly, overpriced, asymmetrical, out-of-stock Kindle.
It's obvious that Amazon is getting preferential wholesale pricing, volume discounts, whatever. Why Sony entered the e-book market knowing (or worse, without knowing) that they couldn't compete, is beyond me, and I'm a sucker for giving them my money. |
05-21-2008, 02:14 PM | #2 |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 8,512
Karma: 64095689
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Harrisburg outskirts
Device: Palms, K1-4s, iPads, iPhones, KV, KO1
|
Yup -- I've noticed the pricing difference. Every mailing I get for ereader books (from my long years reading on the pda, I'm still on the mailing list) -- I check the price on Amazon before buying anything, and it's always been better on Amazon. So far, anyway. Guess that was part of why I picked the Kindle -- but you probably got your Sony earlier and before Amazon got into the game.
Maybe somebody wants to buy your Sony, and you can switch...... the Kindle is really better in person than it looks to be in pictures. |
05-21-2008, 02:14 PM | #3 | |
Gizmologist
Posts: 11,615
Karma: 929550
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3
|
Quote:
And Sony entered the market over a year before Amazon, so .... |
|
05-21-2008, 02:17 PM | #4 |
Actively passive.
Posts: 2,042
Karma: 478376
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: US
Device: Sony PRS-505/LC
|
So... so, they've had a year to react, to fight back, to demand better pricing from publishers. Don't ruin my bad mood with logic and facts, damn you.
Guess I'll go eat worms. (Sung to the tune of "Polly-Wolly Doodle") Last edited by Taylor514ce; 05-21-2008 at 02:19 PM. |
05-21-2008, 02:30 PM | #5 |
Gizmologist
Posts: 11,615
Karma: 929550
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3
|
|
05-21-2008, 02:42 PM | #6 |
When's Doughnut Day?
Posts: 10,059
Karma: 13675475
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Houston, TX, US
Device: Sony PRS-505, iPad
|
I think he means Sony, not Amazon. Surely Sony knew that Amazon was going to make a move before November.
Last edited by vivaldirules; 05-21-2008 at 02:44 PM. |
05-21-2008, 03:29 PM | #7 |
fruminous edugeek
Posts: 6,745
Karma: 551260
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Northeast US
Device: iPad, eBw 1150
|
Amazon has a lot more clout with book publishers than Sony. Ebooks are the only books Sony sells, whereas Amazon is a major outlet for all books.
I think the lower prices at Amazon will end up forcing the rest of the market down, though. Particularly if ebook sales do well at Amazon. We've often argued here that if prices were lower, people would buy more ebooks. Amazon might finally put that to the test (though I think $6.99 is still too high). |
05-21-2008, 03:44 PM | #8 | |
Gizmologist
Posts: 11,615
Karma: 929550
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN
Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3
|
Quote:
I'm quite confident that Sony knew that Amazon was working on the Kindle, but as to how much warning of the actual launch date they had, I wouldn't like to guess. I do remember some rather vehement pronouncements in late October that Amazon couldn't be planning to launch before Christmas because they hadn't done any pre-launch marketing stuff. I suppose it would be self-promoting of me to note that my suggestion proved out that all Amazon really had to do was put it on their own front page to produce an instantaneous marketing blitz, so I won't do that. |
|
05-21-2008, 03:46 PM | #9 |
Enthusiast
Posts: 39
Karma: 2112556
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Morristown
Device: Boox Nova 2, Kobo Clara, Nook Glowlight Plus, Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
|
I have to say that I asked for and recieved a Sony PRS-500 for christmas this pas year, one of the refurbed ones. I've been very happy with the reader, though I think prolly Sony would not be very happy with me. I've spent most of my time on it reading books from here, as well as my free downloads from Sony. I just have yet to see something that I would want to buy for it.
But I keep looking. I do agree that I think that prices are still a bit to high. I hope that competition from the Kindle will continue to help drive down prices everywhere. I agree like most people, I considered a Kindle, but based on lack of availability, and the fact it looks like from 1978 Battlestar Galactica, it was just not the reader for me. Devin |
05-21-2008, 06:11 PM | #10 | |
Groupie
Posts: 154
Karma: 672
Join Date: Oct 2006
Device: Tapwave Zodiac, eBookwise 1150
|
Quote:
Man, that always upsets me! I'd like to think that the paperback just came out, and this is a temporary sitch before the prices adjust, but the paperback came out in 2003! Jack |
|
05-21-2008, 06:15 PM | #11 | |
Grand Sorcerer
Posts: 19,832
Karma: 11844413
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Tampa, FL USA
Device: Kindle Touch
|
Quote:
BOb |
|
05-21-2008, 06:22 PM | #12 |
Actively passive.
Posts: 2,042
Karma: 478376
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: US
Device: Sony PRS-505/LC
|
Supposedly, publishers set their ebook prices to match whatever their latest offering is. If they re-release a book as a new hardcover edition, it doesn't matter that you can buy a paperback for seven bucks. If that new hardcover edition is 20 bucks, then so is the ebook.
Why? Because publishers really don't want you to buy the ebook, is my guess. They wish the whole ebook thing would go away. And good grief (he hastens to edit) what does the concept of "wholesale" pricing have to do with EBOOKS? Amazon gets a better price because they buy 100,000 copies of an ebook? I guess it costs them more to store all those "extra" ebooks, on a bigger hard drive. "Volume" discounts? What a crock. They get a better price because the promise to sell more, or promise NOT to sell it all if they DON'T get a better price. Last edited by Taylor514ce; 05-21-2008 at 06:35 PM. |
05-22-2008, 10:26 AM | #13 |
Wizard
Posts: 3,442
Karma: 300001
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Belgium
Device: PRS-500/505/700, Kindle, Cybook Gen3, Words Gear
|
I think Amazon also said that they're prepared to sell popular books at a loss if they can't get the price from the publisher.
|
05-22-2008, 10:38 AM | #14 |
Actively passive.
Posts: 2,042
Karma: 478376
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: US
Device: Sony PRS-505/LC
|
They can subsidize aggressive ebook pricing (and thus Kindle domination) from their print edition sales. No other ebook vendor has that ability. It's extremely smart on the part of Amazon, and effective. I don't think Sony can counter that, and should strike a deal with Amazon to get Amazon to support LRF, or, alternatively, upgrade/redesign the Sony device so it can be registered with Amazon as a "Kindle" device.
|
05-24-2008, 12:58 PM | #15 |
Linux User
Posts: 323
Karma: 13682
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Germany
Device: Kindle 3
|
Hm, now Shadow Puppets is at $7.95 for PDF, MS Reader, eReader and $11.20 for Mobipocket at Books on Board.
You're right though – I hope non-Kindle e-book prices will go down soon. |
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Under The Moon's Shadow - Romantic Suspense - Now Available | TLHaddix | Self-Promotions by Authors and Publishers | 2 | 11-02-2010 11:43 AM |
The Shadow Conspiracy | stevenharper | Writers' Corner | 5 | 12-23-2009 04:39 PM |
From the shadow of the Gateway Arch, Hello | dmon65 | Introduce Yourself | 5 | 06-03-2009 08:33 PM |
OT: What's up with the sock puppets? | edbro | Sony Reader | 8 | 05-18-2009 09:48 AM |
Fantasy Merritt, A.: Creep, Shadow!. v1. 29 May 07 | Dr. Drib | BBeB/LRF Books | 1 | 05-30-2007 11:12 PM |