It seems like ages ago I wrote about the lunacy of ebook pricing … but things haven’t gotten much better! Today is the release of the fifth book in the critically acclaimed ‘Game of Thrones’ series that has been 15 years in the making, and the first book in six years! I have only recently started reading the mammoth series so I find myself in the position of not needing to rush out and buy the latest book.
But that didn’t stop me from looking! And what I found was that although the ebook is at least ~$4 LESS than the discounted hardcover depending on retailer, it is uniformly priced at $14.99 EVERYWHERE!
Here are the links to the book listing:
Borders
Sony eBoorStore
While I am sure some are happy to see uniform pricing, and others happy that the ebook is significantly cheaper than the hardcover, and still others saying that there is no need to discount a book like this yet (they are right), I still can’t help but feel the pinch of the publisher at work – for the hardcover I found more than a 20% difference between retailers, yet EVERY SINGLE ebook is identical?!? Welcome to the magic of “Agency Pricing”, where there’s no guesswork, because there’s no competition!
What do you think – does this pricing make sense to you? Personally I can’t help but think of that slogan ‘when banks compete, you win’ … but now it is ‘when publishers don’t have to compete … you lose’!