Every single publisher will increase their prices too... Amazon bent for one, the rest want that money too... and who can blame them?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Days after Macmillan essentially forced Amazon to accept higher prices for its Kindle e-book titles, Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp., said his publishing company HarperCollins is also in talks to increase titles beyond $9.99.

During his company's earnings call this week, Murdoch revealed that he doesn't like the $9.99 pricing currently employed by Amazon because it devalues books and hurts retailers who sell the hardcover editions. But he noted Apple's content deals for its new iPad allow publishers more flexibility to set prices at a level they believe is fair.

"Apple -- in its agreement with us, which has not been disclosed in detail -- does allow for a variety of slightly higher prices," Murdoch said. "There will be prices very much less than the printed copies of books, but still will not be fixed in a way that Amazon has been doing it."

Now, Murdoch said, Amazon is "ready to sit down" with HarperCollins to renegotiate pricing of books on the Kindle.

The revelation comes after a short-lived standoff over e-book prices between Amazon and Macmillan, during which Amazon temporarily suspended sales of all books from the publisher. A day later, though, Amazon reluctantly conceded and allowed the publisher to raise its prices to between $12.99 and $14.99.

The events were foreshadowed last week by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who told Walt Mossberg of The New York Times that publishers were going to begin withholding their titles from the Kindle because they were not happy with the pricing structure. Jobs also said the iPad and Kindle would offer "the same" prices on e-books.

Prior to last week, it was rumored that publishers were in talks with Apple to offer new hardcover bestsellers at prices of $12.99 and $14.99. The terms of the e-book deals Apple has struck with publishers remain unknown.

When Apple introduced the iPad last week, it also unveiled the new iBooks application for reading e-books. The software also includes the iBookstore, which allows users to purchase content that will be displayed on their virtual bookshelf. Apple announced deals with five major book partners, including Macmillan and HarperCollins.

This is a load of shit. Not bullshit, but a pain in the ass.

Best sellers should be $9.99. Everything else should be $6.99 for novels, and $4.99 for novellas. Oh, and Rupert Murdoch is a bastard. Not just for this, but generally speaking.

Bah! We all lose!

Amazon should have pulled a Frank Drebin like in Naked Gun 33 and a 1/3;

How come forum trolls knew all that before and philanthropes at Amazon didn't

P.S. Kind advice, Amazon. Readers' rating is two stars or lower - the fine on the publisher.

Nice to see Steve pulling for the customers.... OH wait...

One aspect of production cost comparisons between conventional and e-books which I don't recall being mentioned much so far in these article discussions is the difference between the continuing costs of printing, distributing, warehousing, recycling unsold copies, etc., of conventional books, and the relatively minimal or even non-existent comparable costs of e-books.

It would seem that such savings would allow publishers to at least maintain and perhaps enhance design and content quality to include dynamic/interactive/multimedia content in e-books, all while selling e-books at dramatically lower prices than conventional books.

It will be interesting to see the shift in economics of book production. Will publishers pay adequately for enhanced dynamic content? Will independent/self-publishers have significant publishing opportunities from access to the Apple Bookstore?

On the one hand, I don't like paying more than I have to for the written word, on the other hand, I very much want great publishers and newspapers to thrive. For example: I've been reading the NY Times online for free now for a few years. (I paid them their online subscription fee for the brief period where they required that.) So I very much enjoy their product, and I also very much enjoy getting it for free. But I have to be honest with myself and admit that I'm getting too good a deal. It's too good to last.

So yes, I'm a penny-pinching cheapskate who doesn't want to pay anything for this great material, but more importantly, I'm a realist and I want the publishers to thrive. So it's totally okay by me that Apple helps these publishers charge the prices they want to charge. If I don't want to pay it, there's tons of free stuff on the Web. They can charge what they think is fair. Consumers don't need to complain about it -- they can pay the price or go elsewhere.