As we mentioned here Wednesday, the agency model pricing impasse between Amazon and Penguin/Pearson has been settled, at least for now, and about 150 newer titles released since April 1 are now in the process of being offered in the Kindle Store, including a number of bestsellers that have been sorely missed by many citizens of Kindle Nation:
- Dead in the Family (Kindle Edition) by Charlaine Harris
- Storm Prey (Kindle Edition) by John Sandford
- Bullet (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) by Laurell K. Hamilton
- Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, Book 5) by Richelle Mead
- The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Nathaniel Philbrick
- Savor the Moment (The Bride Quartet, Book 3) by Nora Roberts
- Lover Mine: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J. R. Ward
Fair warning: the publisher has set the prices for these books and has not been shy about hitting the agency model’s $14.99 upper limit in many cases. Also, some titles may disappear intermittently during this transitional phase.
The following is a listing of Penguin/Pearson imprints in the US:
* Ace
* Alpha
* Avery
* Berkley
* Dutton
* Gotham
* G. P. Putnam’s Sons
* HP Books
* Hudson Street Press
* Jeremy P. Tarcher
* Jove
* NAL
* Penguin
* Penguin Press
* Perigee
* Plume
* Portfolio
* Prentice Hall Press
* Riverhead
* Sentinel
* Viking Children’s Division
* Dial
* Dutton
* Firebird
* Frederick Warne
* G. P. Putnam’s Sons
* Grosset & Dunlap
* Philomel
* Price Stern Sloan
* Puffin Books
* Razorbill
* Speak
* Viking
The book I have been waiting for, A Murderous Procession, just appeared on Kindle. It is priced at $17.99, more than the hardback! I'm hoping it is a typo, but in any case, I will wait for it to come down.
I have a lot of books on a Kindle watch list and have been buying steadily ever since I got my Kindle for Christmas 2009. I went through the list today and removed over 100 books because Penguin's prices are RIDICULOUS! A book that was 9.99 yesterday is 12.99 today (plus sales tax), and this is a reprint of a 25-year-old book (used copies $.40). Obviously, Penguin has learned nothing from the negative reactions of readers who got hit by the switchover in April.
I'm not one to call for a boycott; I plan to just quietly conduct my own.
The thing to do here is not to buy the higher-priced Kindle version or even the hardback. Wait a week, and there will be used copies available. For example, in April I decided not to buy the higher-priced Kindle version of the new Mary Higgins Clark. I bought a good used copy, read it, and immediately resold it. I made all my money back, and the publisher didn't get a cent. Unfortunately, neither did the author, but she has only the publisher to blame for that. One author on a Kindle list has already remarked that her agency-controlled titles are not selling at all, but she sells over 80 copies a month of the Kindle titles she controls herself.
FYI, Kindle 2.5 coming… later
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200324680
I requested the book from my local library. I should have it in a few days.