Over the weekend, Macmillan Books and Amazon had it out over pricing of ebooks used on the Kindle. The New York Times had an article, and The Motley Fool weighs in as well. Macmillan, thinking an ebook is similar to a physical book, and therefore should be just about as expensive as a physical book, wants to charge more money for its ebooks. Amazon, who I cannot believe has not already put some contingency plans into place for pricing issues, blocked sales of all Macmillan books, e and physical, for several hours!
Hey Macmillan, your costs drop exponentially when you sell ebooks! Sell lots of them and quit crying. I won’t be buying any of your ebooks (on my Kindles or my iPad) if you raise prices above $9.99. Hey Amazon, figure out your business model, and stick to your guns! We buy Kindles because they are convenient to load up, and we can carry lots of books around that don’t cost an arm and a leg to buy. I think some of us think about fuel and material costs that get tacked on to the costs of physical books. None of this is hard to figure out…
[Ed.'s note: Here's another article, this time from WIRED, articulating much better what I tried to say. Oh, I wish there were a few more hours in the day...]
[Ed.'s second note: Here's some more on the topic. This time The New York Times weighs in with how Kindle fans are reacting to the higher prices. I didn't think readers would take it without a fight.]
