Comments on: Kindle Myths, Misinformation

By: st

st — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 23:10:30 +0000

Would you like bread or cheese with that?

By: switch11

switch11 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:57:53 +0000

well, at the moment it’s 2 of the top 50.
So obviously some people who’ve been waiting for a book go for the higher price – however, the majority don’t.
8 in the top 50? you must have found an exception. There are 2 right now. And there are usually not 8 in the top 100.

By: David

David — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 20:43:32 +0000

I think a limit of six registered devices at any given time is reasonable. The Reader works the same way. When I buy a book, I my wife and my daughter can, since we all have readers, all read it at the same time. So I get the book for less money than a single physical copy and it can do duty as multiple books? That’s a pretty good deal.

I know that DRM sucks, but so far I don’t actually hate the way it’s being implemented in readers.

By: Aaron Pressman

Aaron Pressman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:05:06 +0000

Some very good points here. I’d note that some of the misinformation comes from multiple anecdotes of statements by Amazon’s own customer service reps. Combined with the fact that Amazon’s PR department does not respond to queries from us ordinary bloggers, I would suggest that Amazon is thus in part culpable. They need to be far more active — and could easily be by using the existing Kindle blog, a new FAQ or other channels like Twitter to respond.

Your defense of the revenue split on Kindle books is, if anything, too weak. The revenue split between Amazon and all the major publishers is not a single, known ratio like 65/35. Major publishers have typically been getting 50% or more of the print list price on Kindle books, which can often be more than the $9.99 Amazon collects. Lately, there’s been a proliferation of “Digital List Price” showing up on Kindle book pages. This may reflect some new deals Amazon has struck with publishers on royalties. That said, I think you could agree that discounting off a made-up, not sold anywhere Kindle digital list price is pretty misleading. See the Tim Russert example on my blog.

Finally, your argument about rising prices attacks a strawman and flies in the face of too much evidence. No one has said 90% of Kindle books had prices increased or sell for more than $9.99 or anything close to that. And it is Amazon, not publishers, which sets the price of Kindle books. It may be true that books over $9.99 aren’t topping the Kindle best seller list, but there sure are a lot of new hardcovers arriving with prices over $9.99, as you find if you’re just an avid Kindle reader like me, if you take note of the growing over $9.99 boycott movement or you look at these database analyses, limited though they may be (no more limited than you citing a snapshot of the top 100 sellers, either, though). As I write this, the #2 book in the store is $14.84 and 2 of the top 20 and 8 of the top 50 are recent hardcovers with prices over $9.99 (usually around $13 to $15).

The Kindle is a great thing, Amazon is cool, but neither is perfect.

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:58:13 +0000

My point is, precisely, that “Publishers and Authors” should not have a say about how many devices I can use.

By: Myths about Kindle ‘myths’: Don’t pander to Amazon’s worst side | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:43:00 +0000

[...] In Kindle Myths, Misinformation, the iReader Review attacks critics of the K machine. And you know what? Erroneous anti-Kindle reports have in fact appeared. [...]

By: switch11

switch11 — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:44:41 +0000

apparently you can talk to customer service and change what devices have licenses for your books.

Just as you think 6 is good, not great, Publishers and Authors probalby think letting a book shared between 6 devices is too much.
a line has to be drawn somewhere and 6 is reasonable, in my opinion.

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:20:42 +0000

A limit of 6 devices is NOT reasonable. Think about it… you got the first gen kindle, then bought the second gen and, drat, they released the DX and now you have three kindles.

You also have an iphone, and as someone experienced, if you update it to 3.0, it forgets it was already registered and re-registers, using one more slot.

That’s five “devices”, not counting you ipod touch or your wife’s kindle.

It’s not easy to hit the limit of 6 devices, but it’s not an extreme either.

Damn, I paid for the book in the first place, why are you going to treat me like a criminal that is trying to “steal” it just because I’m trying to use it on more devices than you thought we reasonable?