The e-book wars are coming to a head, and the consumer is the victim.
The new Dresden book Changes comes out tomorrow. I was originally planning on getting it for the kindle, just like all the books I read. Unfortunately, it was pulled a couple of days ago because the publish is being a dick. This all stems from the publishers preference to the “agency” sales model for digital media. They prefer this because while they get fewer profits they have more pricing control. Why does this matter? Well, Amazon has been purchasing licenses for books at their whole sale prices (around $13 for new releases), and then turning around and selling them for $9.99 in the kindle store. What does this mean? Well, having cheap books helps bolster the sales of Amazon’s ebook reader, the kindle. Publishers don’t like this because they think it “destroys the value of digital books.”
While other ebook publishers, have given in to the agency model (Sony, B&N) others, such as Apple demand the agency model. Sadly Amazon is the last hold out. As a reaction to penguin refusing to release new books to the kindle unless Amazon agrees to the agency model, Amazon has begun canceling preorders and reduced the price of hardcovers to $9.99.
Please help Amazon “destroy the value of hardcovers” by choosing to purchase their loss leader $9.99 hardcovers rather than paying full price elsewhere.
The same could be said about the DLC model for video games and almost all media. The customer and honestly the fan gets just totally destroyed these days.
The only way of looking at it is vote with your dollars you are a good man jja you should create a website dedicated to your campaign here.
I’m not sure I completely understand, but isn’t this a little like price-fixing???
Price fixing is when competitors agree to charge the same price for something. Basically what is happening is the content producers are setting the price for the distributors, which is a fairly common practice know as “manufacturer approved pricing”