Originally posted at BookGorilla.com
Over at his Kindle Review blog Abhi has been doing his usually fine job of following events in the Kindlesphere, and he turned his focus today on something we’ve been thinking about too: the effect of the Kindle Store’s wildly popular Sunshine Deals promotion on ebook prices generally.
In case you are wondering, our sister blog Kindle Nation Daily pretty much summed up Sunshine Deals with a June 1 bargain alert that said:
Bargain Alert! SUNSHINE DEALS at Kindle!
It’s been natural enough to wonder how the Big Six price-fixing agency model publishers would respond to the Sunshine Deals initiative. Why should they respond? Sunshine Deals is just one more salvo in Amazon’s very effective multi-pronged strategy to provide customer-friendly Kindle Store prices — which to Amazon means prices at $9.99 and below.
As long as the Big Six publishers try to fight back by insisting on higher ebook prices, it’s not much of a fight. Sure, the publishers can get those $12.99 prices for ebooks by a few big-name bestselling authors, but as long as they hold prices at those levels for second-tier new releases, the overall result is that they are losing market share to ebooks whose prices hit Kindle readers’ sweet spot in the range from $7.99 all the way down to 99 cents.
Those very popular but less expensive ebooks are being offered up in increasing variety and selection by a growing range of authors and publishers, including:
- thousands of direct-to-Kindle authors who range from new indie authors to bestselling traditionally published veterans like Ruth Harris and Paul Levine;
- growing legions of small-press indie publishers;
- relatively new publishing ventures such as RosettaBooks and Jane Friedman’s Open Road Integrated Media; and, of course,
- Amazon itself and its growing list of publishing imprints such as AmazonEncore, AmazonCrossing, Montlake Romance and, for suspense fans, Thomas and Mercer.
Through most of the past year it has seemed as if the Big Six publishers would figure all of this out at roughly the same time that the last of them to leave their expensive Manhattan headquar
ters reached for the light switch on the way out. But now, finally, Abhi’s post today suggests that at least some publishers are embracing price competition in the real world:
“Publishers are waking up to the fact that someone other than them is selling a ton of books (at least if the rumors are true and Sunshine Deals really do exclude most of the Big 6),” he says, and points out that suddenly “there are a ton of Harper Collins novels on sale at $2.99 and $4.99.”
Could be a good sign. And we’re happy to hear that smaller, more nimble publishers like Twilight Times Books are stepping up to the plate, too!
“We appreciate our readers. 50 award-winning ebooks are on sale from Twilight Times Books for $2.99 via Amazon Kindle until June 15th. Historical, literary, mystery, SF, YA and more,” said Twilight Times publisher Lida E. Quillen in an email to Kindle Nation earlier today. Here’s a link to the entire Twilight Times Books catalog in the Kindle Store, featuring the bargain books just mentioned as well as quite a few others priced between free and $2.99!
I was especially pleased to see The Solomon Scandals by old pal and colleague David Rothman available from Twilight Times for 99 cents. It’s a terrific read.
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… is highly recommended for those who enjoy historical fiction, especially fiction related to the Gettysburg Campaign.”