Amazon is selling the Kindle Edition of Scott Turow’s new book for $14.99. Substantially the same price as the print edition. Scott Turow is the extremely successful writer of legal suspense novels. Since they first created the Kindle Amazon has sold most e-books for $9.99.
Amazon was forced to make this price increase by the publisher. They want to maximize the sell price and sell printed books. They have a huge sunk cost in the value of their printing plants and distribution systems and they want to preserve it. The publishers will lose of course because the cost of e-books is so much lower. The only question is: How long can the publishers hang on to the old model? They forced Amazon to capitulate to price increases but now they are running into consumer resistance on the customer review pages of their web site. Take a look: Innocent by Scott Turow Reviews
It is virtual civil disobedience. And of course I’m participating. We (the price protesters) have taken over the customer reviews and are rating the book one star. Hopefully the result will be a rapid change in the pricing by the publisher. I’m sorry for Scott Turow since he will lose some royalty money but in the words of Lenin: “If you want to make an omelet you have to break some eggs.”