John Grisham is now available on the Kindle!
The long national nightmare is over. The most significant case of “windowing” yet in the Kindle Store is over. After 27 months and 25 days, bestselling novelist John Grisham has set his books free in the Kindle Store.
Not at $14.99, or $12.99, or even in most cases $9.99. As you’ll see if you click here to see Grisham’s brand new Kindle Store page, most are priced at $5.99 to $7.99, which by my lights is right where they should be.
More than any other bestselling author, Grisham disappointed hundreds of thousands of Kindle owners over the past couple of years by holding out. It was a principled stand, based on the author’s love for the bookstores and booksellers that he visited with cases of copies of his originally self-published A Time to Kill in the trunk of his car before The Firm became a blockbuster word-of-mouth bestseller.
But today, he’s all in for Kindle readers, and the significance and timing for Amazon and the Kindle is brilliant.
It’s no mere coincidence that Grisham’s various publishing imprints are all Random House subsidiaries, and that Random House is the key holdout from the so-called agency model among the Big Six publishers. Random House management has already shown an interest in paying attention to Amazon’s expertise on ebook pricing issues rather than trying to impose a collusive price-fixing scheme down retailers’ throats.
As the Apple 5 publishers try to dress up sow’s ears as silk purses to sell their so-called “hardcover ebooks” at $12.99, $14.99, and $15.99, how will authors like David Baldacci like looking at the Kindle bestseller list and having their new releases trail Grisham backlist titles?
And, speaking of Apple, the fact that you can download Grisham books today on a Kindle, Kindle for PC, Kindle for BlackBerry, Kindle for iPhone, and Kindle for iPod Touch is bound to have an effect on
the apparently lackluster flow of pre-orders for the iPad, at least among those who are contemplating it as an ereading device.
Here’s a link to the AP news story, in which it’s nice to see Sonny Mehta, chairman and editor-in-chief of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, take a welcoming posture toward ebooks in this statement: “This is one of our most exciting e-book initiatives to date and is certain to usher in a new generation of Grisham readers and e-book adopters.”
Does the fun ever end?
TITLE PRICE SALES RANK AS OF 6 am 3.16.10 SALES RANK AS OF 7 am 3.16.10
A Time to Kill 7.99 N.A. 17365
The Chamber 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Firm 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Testament 7.99 N.A. 17014
The Runaway Jury 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Client 7.99 10855 11319
Skipping Christmas 6.99 N.A. N.A.
The Associate 9.99 19606 20384
Ford County 9.99 5474 2950
The Partner 5.99 18301 19097
The Summons 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Brethren 7.99 N.A. 9635
The King of Torts 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Appeal 7.99 18441 19237
A Painted House 7.99 N.A. 17319
The Last Juror 7.99 N.A. N.A.
Playing for Pizza 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Pelican Brief 7.99 19071 19861
The Rainmaker 7.99 N.A. 17352
Bleachers 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Broker 7.99 18696 10419
The Innocent Man 7.99 N.A. N.A.
The Street Lawyer 7.99 18735 19548