February 2012 Kindle books sale
There isn’t a single thread in the first 100 in the
complaining about the high prices of e-books.
That’s remarkable!
As regular readers of my monthly Snapshots of the Kindle store know, the percentage of books priced between one penny and $9.99 in what I call the Prime Range (one penny to fifty dollars) hasn’t been going up. The average New York Times fiction hardback bestseller equivalents has been around $13 for a while.
That hadn’t stopped people from complaining, though. 
I understand the complaining. There are people who are particularly incensed if they can buy the new paperbook from Amazon at a lower price than the Kindle edition. Clearly, they thought that e-books would be less expensive than p-books, so they are disappointed about that.
However, I have felt that the number of complaints about books being priced over $9.99 has been going down.
Why is that?
I think it may be because there are more alternatives to get lower-priced books.
- You can get books from the public library…even though some publishers don’t participate (or don’t participate fully), you can ge well-known books that way
- You can borrow Kindle books from people not on your account (although, again, major publishers limit that)
- Eligible Prime members can borrow books from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library (KOLL) at no additional cost (again, those may not be from some big publishers, but others do participate…so you can find popular books)
- Amazon published books may be cheaper
- Amazon is encouraging independent publishers to make books free under the KDP select program on some days
Another thing? Amazon does sales.
One thing these all have in common: they aren’t from the Big Six traditional publishers.
That doesn’t mean those tradpubs are feeling the pain…the market is still growing so rapidly that they are making lots of sales.
What it does suggest to me, though, is that people are considering alternatives…that may be very important, and Amazon getting big names into their own publishing helps push that.
Let’s get back to those Amazon sales.
They can’t put Agency Model books on sale very easily (the publisher has to do that), but they do discount other books.
Currently, they pick 100 books a month to price at $3.99 at less.
That’s in addition to their Kindle Daily Deal.
I thought I’d pick out some books from February’s set that caught my eye. Note that these prices are for the USA…it may not apply where you are. Always check the price before you click the “Buy” button.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
by Kurt Vonnegut
$2.99 at time of writing (digital list price: $7.99)
Introducing the character Kilgore Trout. Random House fought RosettaBooks over their ability to license e-books when RH had the paperbook rights…and lost. Without that, you might not be seeing this e-book in this sale.
The Borrowers
by Mary Norton
$1.59 ($6.99)
The first of the popular children’s book series
Gettysburg: A Novel of the Civil War
by Newt Gingrich, william Forstchen
$2.99 ($9.99)
The Door into Summer
by Robert Heinlein
$2.99 ($6.39)
Classic science fiction by an acknowledged master
Black Firsts
by Jessie Carney Smith
$3.99 ($19.95)
Good one for Black History Month, of course…
Eiger Dreams: Ventures Among Men and Mountains
by Jon Krakauer
$3.99 ($13.95)
Krakauer is the author of Into Thin Air
Steampunk II: Steampunk Reloaded
edited by Ann VanderMeer, Jeff VanderMeer
$2.99 ($9.95)
Curious about steampunk? This anthology mixes non=fiction and fiction, and contributors include Tanith Lee and William Gibson. Even if you don’t buy it, a sample might be interesting
Conspiracies and Secret Societies
by Brad Steiger, Sherry Steiger
$3.99 ($19.95)
Steiger writes knowledgeably and entertainingly about “fringe” topics…oh, and prolifically. Brad has written over 150 books, and I have many of them in paper
The Worst-Case Scenario Almanac: History
by Joshua Piven, David Borgenicht, Piers Marchant, Melissa Wagner
$2.99 ($13.99)
From the authors of the Worst Case Scenario books
Those are a few that I noticed, but there are a hundred of them. If there are others you would recommend, feel free to comment on this post. Oh, and of course, none of these block text-to-speech access.
Update: Here’s a link to all 100…thanks to my reader Árni Viðar Björgvinsson for pointing out that I had forgotten to include that link…simply an oversight on my part. I appreciate it when readers point those sorts of things out so I can correct them.
100 Kindle Books for February 2012
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
February 8, 2012 at 3:49 pm |
The Borrowers is a lovely one. I read it as an adult when I was an elementary school librarian. So in addition to being suitable for children, it is enjoyable to adults with a sense of whimsy, and there are sequels so you can continue to follow the characters.
February 8, 2012 at 4:29 pm |
Thanks for writing, Mary!
Thanks for sharing that! I do think some adults are…reluctant to read books putatively intended for children. That’s a bit limiting, in my opinion.
February 8, 2012 at 11:10 pm |
There is a new borrowers movie coming out by Studio Ghibli and Disney. It is called The Secret World of Arrietty. The movie opens in the US on February 17th.
I am delighted to see the book on sale. I will try to read it again before seeing the movie.
I read several of the borrowers books as a child and enjoyed all of them.
February 8, 2012 at 11:15 pm
Thanks for writing, Erin-Joi!
Yes, great point! It came out in Japan in 2010, but is being released here soon, as you say.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568921/
The legendary Japanese animator Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle) has a screenplay credit.
February 8, 2012 at 8:32 pm |
Hey Bufo, is there a link somewhere to all of those books?
February 8, 2012 at 9:11 pm |
Thanks for writing, Árni!
Each of the books is linked in the post, although if you are outside the USA, the links may not take you to a book, I think.
Do you not have links where you are seeing the post? If not, could you tell me where you are viewing it…on a Kindle? In a browser (and if so, which one)?
Thanks!
February 8, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. You said that there were 100 books being down-priced to $3.99 or less. I was wondering if there was some link to all these 100 books.
February 8, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Thanks for writing, Árni!
D’oh! Excellent point, I’d meant to include that. I’ve updated the post now to reflect it, and credited you for the question. Here it is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&plgroup=1&tag=bufosweirdworld&linkCode=ur2&docId=1000706171&camp=1789&creative=390957
February 8, 2012 at 10:33 pm
Hah… thank you for the link, and glad to be of assistance
February 9, 2012 at 12:04 am |
“The Door Into Summer” was the very first science fiction book I ever read way back when I was in Jr. High. (No middle schools back then.) I pulled it out of a pile of books that had been destined to be turned into pulp to make paper boxes. (My neighbor worked at a paper mill and would bring home piles of books that he put in his garage. Neither he nor his wife were readers, so I don’t know what plans he had for all those books, but for me, it was like a treasure chest. I immediately fell in love with the genre and went to the library to find all the rest of his books, which led me to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke. I also found “The Skylark of Space” by Doc Smith in that remainder pile. I realize now that those books should not have been brought home and given away to neighborhood children, but I hope I’ve more than redeemed myself by buying a lifetime’s worth of additional works by those early authors and newer ones. Of course, I had already purchased “The Door Into Summer” when Heinlein’s books first became available for Kindle, and I keep adding them favorite by favorite. While the rest of my generation is waiting for their flying cars, I’m waiting for my own crew of “Hired Girl” robots to do all the chores I’m so tired of doing for myself. And of course, I’ll always have at least one cat who is looking for that door into summer! Thanks for the mini trip down memory lane!
February 9, 2012 at 1:08 am |
Thanks for writing, Lady!
I love that you shared that! Those serendipitous book discoveries can have a life-long impact.
For people who don’t know the anecdote, the title of “The Door Into Summer” was supposedly suggested by Robert Heinlein’s Significant Other. The way I recall it, they had a cat who wouldn’t go outside in the snow, but would look outside several doors before rejecting them. Ginny said the cat was looking for “the door into summer”…and that became this novel.
February 9, 2012 at 1:16 am |
As far as prices go, if there’s a book I’m interested in and it’s not in my local e-library, I’ll pay the higher price of the e-book especially if it’s one I think I’ll highlight and reference. I’d rather not have another book on a shelf and it’s worth the convenience to me. You can’t have free and cheap 100% of the time (just most of the time!)
February 9, 2012 at 5:33 am |
It occurs to me that the biggest effect of publishers raising their prices for Ebooks was to get me motivated enough to make more use of my local library, which has most everything I want available to borrow for free with a bit of patience.
February 9, 2012 at 2:46 pm |
Thanks for writing, Man!
I think that was one result…and another was people broadening what they read beyond the Big Six.
It’s very significant that “mosteverything” you want is available…when so many books from the Big Six aren’t in public libraries. It demonstrates how you’ve found that you don’t need those.
February 9, 2012 at 3:08 pm
I suspect that he meant print books, not digital, when he said that with patience most everything was available in his public library. As for me, I’ve been through several phases with my Kindles. Before I had a Kindle, 99% of the fiction I read was from the public library. With my first Kindle, that began to shift, and at one point I would say the Kindle was providing me with 95% of the fiction plus a lot of non-fiction. Recently I am back to getting more of what I would call the “recalcitrant books” from the library in print form (Penguin especially). By recalcitrant I mean those whose price stays high for a long time. A wild estimate would be that I’m now down to 75-80% fiction via the Kindle, and the rest in print form from the library. However, if Big 6 prices for digital were to drop, I’d rather read these on my Kindle.
February 9, 2012 at 3:50 pm
Thanks for writing, Mary!
The paperbook thing is a possibility…good thinking.
I just don’t read paperbooks any more, unless i am researching something in my personal library. Part of it is certainly text size…
As an adult, I’ve never really used the public library for recreational reading (although I have used them for research).
I know there is an atavistic territorial element to that…I liked to own my books.
I have read a couple of public library books on my Kindle, though…
February 9, 2012 at 7:28 am |
The pricing complaints may be swinging more towards coming from international customers at this point, which are probably a minority in terms of overall community. Personally, I wouldn’t have so much of a problem with the Aussie prices if everyone was paying the same. I can’t bring myself to pay for an ebook that I am being charged anywhere upwards of 50% more than a US customer for the same digital item. Thankfully, there are a lot of non-agency priced books out there but it does mean I’ve basically quit reading quite a few series I was enjoying up until the recent price hike and that’s annoying to say the least.
February 9, 2012 at 2:53 pm |
Thanks for writing, Burrakooka!
I think you’ve stated that well. I see some complaints about pricing from Aussies, and one obvious point is that you don’t have public library lending or the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.
I don’t tend to compare what I pay for something to a price for a service that I’m not going to use. For example, I don’t compare the e-book price to the papaerbook price, since I’m not going to buy the paperbook. It’s just irrelevant to me. I don’t care that people in Dubai pay a lot less for gas (petrol) than I do…or even that people in Texas pay less than I do in California. If it’s a good value as far as I’m concerned, it’s a good value for me.
You do have an interesting advantage in Australia over the USA. Our copyright terms are different, making some books legally free in Australia that aren’t in the USA (the George Orwell books are a good example).
You do pay higher prices on paperbooks from the USA too, right?
I understand the frustration, though. It’s interesting to me that the perception in the USA has apparently changed, and maybe a similar thing will happen in Oz at some point.
February 10, 2012 at 5:41 pm |
Perhaps the complainers (myself included) have gotten flamed one too many times from affluent bibliophiles who think nothing about dropping $15 down for a book.
I read an average of 1.5 books per week and with kids in college, an aging house and retirement looming up, I can’t afford to pay full price for all the books I read. Thanks goodness for library lending, 0.99 cent books (thanks John Locke!) and BT Airlines (via Transmission and Calibre). I will never ever ever ever pay what the Agency model wants for a book. $7.50 is my absolute limit and it better be damn well worth it.
February 10, 2012 at 7:31 pm |
Thanks for writing, Scott!
That’s possible…but I think most price complaint threads were started by people who hadn’t started one before. They often expressed surprise at the situation…”Has anybody else noticed…?” “What’s the deal with…?” I don’t think they were people who had been flamed once, posted again, got flamed again, thought it was too much, and didn’t post a third time.
When I started on the Amazon Kindle Community, I’d say it was very unusually nice. It is possible over time that it’s gotten snarkier, and that might have general impact of suppressing all sorts of threads. I don’t know if that would specifically affect pricing threads, though.
In your other part of your comment, you mention the alternatives…and if you are satisfied with those, that supports what I was thinking. People who are satisfied are less likely to complain, in my opinion, even if there is something on which they do not depend that they don’t like.
February 11, 2012 at 12:58 am
Whenever I encounter one of those threads complaining about the price of a specific book, I will post a response suggesting that they seek out contact information for the publisher and author to express their concern about the high price. Most publishing houses and many authors have websites that provide some way to send feedback.