Thanks for stopping by.

I think both of you bring up a good point about Preston’s use of the phrase “real price,” which is almost as infuriating as the word “entitlement.” It’s shorthand-doublespeak for “I want more of your money,” and it’s (ironically in this case) a sign of a serious sense of entitlement. There is, of course, no “real price” for anything, and claiming not only that there is one, but that it’s higher than people are paying… well, these are just more signs that Mr. Preston (super-jerk) sees customers as dollar signs.

I sincerely hope that this ingratitude toward his fans and customers severely hurts his career.

does mr preston’s publisher sell his books at wal-mart? at costco? do his books have an expiration date? do they become less valuable as time goes on and therefore can be marked down for ‘clearance?’ maybe the clearance price is the ‘real value’ and the newly published price is inflated?

mr preston. if you perceived your writing to have a ‘real value’ above what the average consumer wants to pay, either don’t write for the average consumer, or sell your books exclusively in tiffany’s. problem solved.

From Douglas Preston article “not wanting to pay the real price of something”
I donot know any way to estimate the “REAL VALUE” of a book unless I read the book. “Real Value” is my own perception and justifying the price of the book on real value is ridiculous.

“Walmart attitude” – If the success of walmart is right, then the walmart attitude will bring more profits.
If 10 people are willing to pay @ 14.99 then there might be 100 people willing to pay @ 9.99 and 400 @6.99.
See how many 99 cent books are in the top 100 list in Amazon.
I baught almost 60 books in Kindle and out of which 45 are either 9.99 or 6.99. Never baught a book above 10 dollars. May be it’s an anchor price. I don’t know. I am really interested in seeing the fate of ebooks after 14.99 default prices.
Will people forget 9.99 anchor point and will buy 14.99 regularly?
or will the publishers realise their mistake? It’s an interesting experiment.

I HOPE Douglas Preston is a true NON-WALMARTIAN. I wish he will always go to a local farmer’s market and pay for the REAL VALUE of a tomatoe or a potatoe.

Thanks for stopping by. I liked your post. You’re definitely more even-handed than I was.

I think part of what drives me a little nuts about this is that publishers talk out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to hardcovers.

On the one hand, they sell hardcovers for at least $10 more than trade paperbacks–even paperback originals, with no release delay. So for decades, they’ve put this great importance on books in hardcover form.

Now, on the other hand, they’re saying hardcover books are so cheap to make as to be worthless from a materials standpoint.

Those two sentiments just don’t jive.

Thanks for stopping by.

They don’t have to make the case. I think they should, I think it would be a smart business and PR decision, but they don’t owe it to us.

However, calling readers “entitled” when they’re actually asking for something reasonable and logical — that’s going a little bit far, don’t you think?

Thanks for stopping by. That’s a great point. Ebook editions are still so limited that it often makes me question my ebook buying when it’s a title I probably won’t want to read again.

Macmillan still has no idea how to sell ebooks.

http://www.thelewisfour.com/2010/02/on-entitlement.html

I feel that $15 is too high, but $9.99 is too low, and give my opinion on why.

The fundamental flaws in your argument are (a) it is built on the proposition that publishers owe consumers price justification data and (b) that ebooks are entities that are wholly separable from their print versions.

I, too, would like to see much lower pricing of both ebooks and hardcovers, but my approach is to not buy books that I consider overpriced — not to demand that the publisher justify the price to me.

Some people are always going to want hard backs. There is something special in their weight, their feel, etc. Even many ebook enthusiasts may want hard backs for some books. But to build your entire business model in the digital age around technology that is essentially 500 years old?

–
Bill