It's a lovely site. Easy to navigate, lots of ways to buy an ebook.
And right there at the top were books by Ross Thomas. I adore Ross Thomas. I've read them all. I was ready to buy. Because I have a Kindle, I clicked the link to Amazon.
And I didn't buy.
Why?
Because the price is $9.99
And frankly, I'm not willing to pay $9.99 for an electronic edition of a book I've already read. Even if I love it (and I do.)
Otto Penzler is a SMART retailer. I've got the sales receipts to prove it. I've spent hundreds if not thousands at his store over the years, and always been pretty glad to do it. His staff is knowledgeable and friendly.
But, they've missed the key consumer mindset that I think a lot of publishers have too. Ebooks are replacing mass market editions. And mass market editions are $5.99 or $6.99. Or at least they were when I bought ALL of the Ross Thomas books in mass market.
The problem is of course now people expect that the electronic edition is going to come out at the same time as the hardcover. It used to be that hardcover came first, then a year later the mass market at the lower price. If you were willing to wait, you paid less. If you were willing to read fast and give it back when you were done, you paid even less and got it at the library.
I don't know how to solve that problem. All I know is I don't want to pay this much for this book.
I guess I'll just have to go back to reading the $25 hardcovers I bought at The Mysterious Bookshop on my last visit instead of re-reading Ross Thomas.
And if you've got any thoughts on ebook pricing, please leave a comment.**
**I should warn you I'm extremely intolerant of " print publishing is dead" tirades
and anyone who uses the phrase "legacy publishing" doesn't get posted.
If you don't like that, no problem, write your own blog.
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