It’s So Cute When They Catch On To eBooks

Why E-books Are Such a Big Deal

The likelihood of The New Nobility becoming a bestseller is, let’s face it, nil. But instead of being lost in the great mountain of new releases that are unloaded at stores each month and almost immediately returned as excess inventory, the book is, at most, a few clicks away from ownership—and that represents a heartening development for authors and publishers.

How soon before he realizes this too?

Sony’s Reader Store Extortionate Pricing

At the Sony Reader Store, The Iron Duke:

Click = big

At the Kindle Store, The Iron Duke:

Click = big

How is it that if the damned price was set by the publisher — via the price-fixing Trust of the Agency Model — the Kindle Store can still sell it for $5.01 less than you, Sony?

Update: This only looks even worse for Sony now. I keep forgetting there’s a new kid on the eBook block now too: Kobo!

Click = big

Kobo has it for $9.99 too!

It’s clear — Sony is plundering its customers!

Update: See the new post about this.

Do You Read This Book Or Just Play With It?

Someday — like in 2011 — we’ll look back at things like this and exclaim, “WTF were they thinking?!!?”

Pretty Pricing Picture For Print Publishing

This is what a free market looks like, publishing.

Go on, tell us all again why you should set eBook prices.

Lessons For Print Publishing From Hulu

Hulu CEO to Big Media: Serve Consumers or Lose Them

Pulling out the important quotes:

You can’t be in the business of protecting.

That’s as in protecting your business model. Get rid of that stupid Trust, the Agency Pricing Model!

Also:

Content is discretionary, so you better focus on convenience.

That quote is for both Sony (add wireless to all models of the Reader!) and Borders (learn how to do eCommerce!).

And:

The thing you want most is intense competition on the distribution side of things.

I repeat: Get rid of that stupid Trust, the Agency Pricing Model!

Publishing Quote Of The Day, If Not Year

What’s a fair price for an e-book? – Telegraph Blogs

Whatever the publishers might believe, it won’t be them that decides pricing but the market.

The real cost of free | Cory Doctorow | Technology | guardian.co.uk

You know who peddles false hope to naive would-be artists? People who go around implying that but for all those internet pirates, there’d be full creative employment for all of us. That the reason artists earn so little is because our audiences can’t be trusted, that once we get this pesky internet thing solved, there’ll be jam tomorrow for everyone. If you want to damn someone for selling a bill of goods to creative people, go after the DRM vendors with their ridiculous claims about copy-proof files; go after the labels who say that wholesale lawsuits against fans on behalf of artists (where labels get to pocket the winnings) are good business; go after the studios who are suing to make it impossible for anyone to put independent video on the internet without a giant corporate legal budget.

via The real cost of free | Cory Doctorow | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Previously here:

“It’s Free! Just Pay Shipping & Handling.”