The more we see agency model publishers like Hachette Book Group conducting their own price experimentation — which in this case has moved suspense novelist Elizabeth Peters from backlist back to bestseller and greatly enhanced her ebook royalties in the bargain — the more certain we are that the experience will, all in due time, bring them back to a sane and sensible, reader-friendly pricing approach. Even if they they have to travel a bumpy road, pay some lawyers, and eat a little crow in the process of getting from here to there. Tastes just like chicken, I’m told.

Last month we congratulated Hachette for offering Peters’ backlist titles The Hippopotamus Pool and Crocodile on the Sandbank at great bargain prices in the Kindle Store. They are still $1.99, and now they have been joined at that price by two more of Peters’ Amelia Peabody series classics, of which a Publishers’ Weekly reviewer wrote: “If Indiana Jones were female, a wife and mother who lived in Victorian times, he would be Amelia Peabody Emerson, an archeologist whose extraordinary adventures are guaranteed entertainment.” (Thanks as always to Kindle Nation citizen Yondalla for the heads up!)

• The Last Camel Died at Noon by Elizabeth Peters – $1.99 – 4.3 out of 5 stars  (32 customer reviews) (Hachette Group, an agency model publisher)
• The Snake, the Crocodile, and the Dog by Elizabeth Peters – $1.99 – 4.5 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews) (Hachette Group, an agency model publisher)

Speaking of great prices in the Kindle Store, as Amazon prepares for changes in the Kindle Store that will make it much more profitable for authors and independent publishers to price their ebooks between $2.99 and $9.99 beginning on or about June 30, 2010, it’s interesting to see the positioning of ebook titles recently priced in the range between 79 cents and $1.99. About a dozen of them now, including a number of self-published or indie-published titled, in the top 100 paid Kindle Store bestsellers. Plenty of goodies here, while supplies last!

Hide by Lisa Gardner – $0.79 – 4.1 out of 5 stars  (76 customer reviews) (Bantam, a Random House imprint)
The Surgeon: with Bonus Content  by Tess Gerritsen – $1.99 – 4.5 out of 5 stars (181 customer reviews) (Ballantine, a Random House imprint)

A Dirty Business by Joe Humphrey – $0.99 – 4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) (Vendera Publishing, an indie publisher)

Thin Blood by Vicki Tyley – $0.99 – 4.4 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews) – Published directly via Kindle DTP

My King The President by Tom Lewis – $1.00 – 5.0 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) (McBryde Publishing, an indie publisher)

Toe Popper by Jonny Tangerine – $0.99 – 4.8 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews) (Grisaille Press, an indie publisher)

Kill & Cure by Stephen Davison – $0.99 – 4.0 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews) (Alice&Fred; Books, an indie publisher)

Kindle Bible – The Holy Bible Formatted for the Amazon Kindle – King James Version – $1.99 – 4.2 out of 5 stars  (5 customer reviews) – Published directly via Kindle DTP

Containment by Christian Cantrell – $0.99 – 4.3 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews) – (Cantrell Media Company, an indie publisher)

Punctured by Rex Kusler – $0.79 – 4.6 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews) – Published directly via Kindle DTP

Defending Evil by Charles Shea – $0.79 – 3.4 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews) – (Charles Shea, an indie publisher)