When Barnes & Noble bought Fictionwise they got two ebook stores as potential weapons against the Kindle Store – Fictionwise.com and eReader.com.
The eReader.com division of Barnes & Noble today sent out an email (scoop courtesy JKOntheRun) to members announcing some drastic price cuts -
- No eBook Priced over $12.95.
- All New York Times Bestsellers for $9.95.
- All new ebooks for $9.95 or less.
- They also have 15% rewards on purchases.
This basically matches the Kindle Store with the additional benefit of eReader’s $12.95 price limit and the 15% reward on purchases.
Really good for Kindle Owners and readers in general
Its good for Kindle Owners because Amazon can’t get complacent on pricing.
Its really good for Kindle Owners and book readers because -
- Its implicit support for Amazon’s $9.99 price-point.
- It testitifes to the huge advantage pricing was giving Amazon.
- At a time when big companies like Google were talking about letting Publishers determine prices, eReader.com realizes the ground reality (since its already selling ebooks) and is forced to price books low.
It really is a big positive that multiple stores now have lower ebook prices. In effect, Barnes and Noble and Amazon are both supporting the $9.99 price point.
Is this a threat to Amazon and the Kindle Store?
- Well, the 15% rewards scheme is a bit scary. However, 15% isn’t enough to take the hassle of using your PC for downloads.
- The $12.95 upper price limit could become a rallying point for claims that Amazon is pro-publisher.
- One big plus for Amazon is it doesn’t become the isolated example of a retailer standing up against Publishers’ demands for higher prices. Less chance Publishers can boycott it if Barnes and Noble are jumping in too.
- Amazon could gets undercut by companies to the point that it can’t cash in on the Kindle’s success.
- Alternatives to the Kindle will be able to compete better because they can use eReader.com’s books.
Overall, it isn’t much of a threat. However, if more and more companies start jumping in at $9.99 book prices, Amazon will be forced to come up with other competitive advantages.
Filed under: news Tagged: | $9.99 kindle, kindle vs ereader
Question is, how much is B&N/Fictionwise paying publishers, and if that number might hypothetically be less than Amazon does…
… not that any of us know anything.
true – really good question.
I was depressed to find, running down the list of Kindle hot release best sellers priced at more than $9.99, that I couldn’t find a single one available from eReader. I’ve also found ereader to be more expensive than Kindle for back catalog books selling for $6 to $8 at Amazon. There may be less to this than meets the eye. I blogged about it today at http://gravitationalpull.net/wp/?p=1018
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