At the moment, there are 5 books priced over $9.99 in the Top 100 bestsellers in the Kindle Store. Just 3 of which are in the Top 75.
Amazon made a very bold move by coming in with $9.99 prices and deserves a lot of credit.
However, were it not for all of you $9.99 boycotters, we would have had 50, and not 5, out of the top 100 books above $9.99.
Here’s why.
Publishers were trying desperately to kill $9.99
It benefits Amazon and customers to have $9.99 prices. However, Publishers were worried about -
- Having to rethink and reorganize their companies for this scary new model.
- Cannibalizing hard cover sales.
- Losing their status as the gate keepers of the book industry.
Publishers were trying a simple sabotage tactic (since they get 50% or so of the list price from Amazon) -
When Amazon started discounting books from $24 or so down to $9.99, Publishers raised the list price for ebooks to $27 or more to raise the discounted prices to $14.
Amazon is stuck because they’re already paying publishers more than they’re getting from customers. If Publishers keep increasing the list price it forces Amazon to raise the price.
Suddenly, the $9.99 prices began to disappear.
The $9.99 Boycott as the Savior
The $9.99 boycott, and more importantly, spreading the word, tagging books, blogging about it, and raising the issue meant -
- Lots of people became aware of the issue.
- People began to understand that $9.99 is a fair price and authors are not going to starve because of it.
- The boycott spread.
- Sales for books above $9.99 were much lower.
Initially, everyone was a skeptic and there were even people who were happy to blast the $9.99 boycotters - it’s never going to work. do you really think customers can decide prices? i’m still going to buy books at $14. No way you can pull it off.
Well, the $9.99 boycott has worked.
For the last 6+ weeks, the number of books over $9.99 in the bestseller charts have consistently been in the 4-10 range.
That’s one big sign. There are two additional BIG signs the $9.99 boycott has worked.
Sony, B&N both matching $9.99
- Barnes & Noble is beginning to match $9.99 on bestsellers in both its B&N eBookstore and at eReader.com.
- Sony announced just today that they’ll match $9.99 on new releases and bestsellers.
So, not only have the $9.99 boycotters ensured Kindle Store prices stay at $9.99, they (along with kindle owners buying in to the $9.99 boycott) have also ensured that a whole industry has no choice but to go with $9.99.
Such a huge contrast from where we were headed a few months ago -
Amazon was stuck as Publishers were raising list prices.
Every other ebook store had high prices.
Google was promising it would let Publishers set prices.
Basically, $9.99 seemed ready to face its demise.
Were it not for you, $9.99 boycotters, we would now be living in a $14 world.
Edge Cases and Outliers
There’ll be a lot of people who’ll be quick to point out -
- When the moon was half full in the month of the jaguar there were 14 books in the Top 100 list. That means $9.99 is not working.
- The book I want is not at $9.99 – that means $9.99 is not working.
- A few people won’t wait and that means $9.99 can never work.
- Publisher X has said they’ll never release ebooks at $9.99, or release it 6 months later.
These are all edge cases. There’s little point worrying about the above $9.99 publishers.
Any publisher who doesn’t embrace $9.99 or delays reducing prices to $9.99 will be competing with -
- Publishers who do match $9.99 and don’t delay the ebook release.
- Independent Authors and Smaller Publishers selling books for $1 to $5.
- Decline in interest as time passes.
And lots of other factors that will reduce ebook sales greatly.
In the next 6 months we have -
- New Sonys in end August.
- The rumored Apple reading device in September.
- Plastic Logic eReader in Jan 2010.
- Kindle 3, probably before Christmas 2009.
- Kindle DX 2 sometime in the next 6 months.
That’s going to keep growing the ebook market. Costs to the publishers who fight $9.99 will increase more and more.
We’re beyond the point of no return.
Congratulations! $9.99 boycott people, you’ve won.
You now face the twin pleasures of -
- Basking in the glow of the $9.99 victory.
- Getting ready for the ‘Delayed eBook Release’ madness that publishers are getting ready to unleash.
Filed under: evolution Tagged: | $9.99 boycott, $9.99 kindle
I truly am not buying books over 9.99 for the Kindle. If they are not available for that or less, I check them out of the library. I do not buy dead tree fiction so if the publishers think that withholding the Kindle version for 6 months will work, good luck to them. By that time I will have read it from the library.
i think its pretty clear that the $9.99 battle is over, and the publishers lost. its also a satisfying poke in the eye for all the jackasses that berate and insult any customer who has the nerve to decide what they think is fair and stands up for it, instead of lining up at the trough no matter what slop theyre fed.
now what we need is a “more than print price/same as print price” boycott to convince the publishers that no, selling your ebook for $9.99 when the paperback has been $7.99 for months (or years, in some cases) is NOT acceptable. and that no, reducing the price to same as the paperback isnt acceptable either.
That’s one big sign. There are two additional BIG signs the $9.99 boycott has worked.
–Boy oh boy. Have you never heard anyone say to you that it’s a pretty good idea to be wary about confusing correlation with causation? All of this likely may have happened without any boycott whatsoever. People simply vote with their dollars. What, exactly, makes you think a boycott had anything to do with it? If you wear purple sneakers to the ballpark and your favorite team wins that day, do you think it was because you wore purple sneakers? C’mon now. We’re in a recession. A deep one. People are voting with their dollars. Think for just a minute and ask yourself if things might be the same, even without the “9.99 boycott” talk in a few places. Do you think it maybe, possibly, still would have been just exactly the same? Yeah, I think you do.
And what is with the big huge hangup on the 9.99 price point? Clearly it’s just a psychological threshold for you people, because we have a numerical system that’s based on 10. What if Amazon had a publicized policy of “best sellers under $11.99″? Would you then be boycotting only books that are over 11.99? Instead of $9.99? Yeah, I think maybe you would.
The 9.99 price point seems kind of arbitrary, you have to admit. I mean, c’mon. Examine yourselves for minute. What is wrong with people and companies trying to sell their wares at whatever price point they want to? Don’t you know about the history of this country, and the history of capitalism? Just vote with your dollars. There’s no need for any kind of ridiculous “boycott”.
As an illustration–If you yourself try only to pay $9.99 or less for a bottle of wine, do you stand outside the wine shop, holding a sign, warning people NOT to buy any of the wines that cost more than $9.99? And to ONLY buy the wines that are set at the price point that YOU think is acceptable? No, you don’t. Why? Because you would look like an absolutely, completely RIDICULOUS LUNATIC!!!!!!!!! C’mon now. Think about it. If some product is not worth it to you because of its price, that’s just FINE!–buy only the products that are worth the price to YOU.
But there is no reason to try and tear down or malign those who charge a little more and try to maximize their profits based on supply and demand curves–that concept is the very reason why everyone in the U.S. who can afford to buy a Kindle has the kind of lifestyle that they have today. Supply, demand, profit, competition, free markets–pull out your 9th grade or even junior high school economics textbooks and turn to chapter ONE if you don’t remember.
If some people had organized a boycott against BMWs, and Toyota Camrys ended up being the #1 selling car that year, would the boycotters have taken credit? And asked Toyota for a big thank you? C’mon now…get real.
Cheers to speaking with your wallet!
Nice article switch!
I believe in the boycott. In addition, I think that fair pricing should be correlated with paperback prices when paperbacks have been released, not hardcover.
Distribution of books has suddenly become massively easier for publishers, and these declining costs should be reflected in the marketplace as quickly as possible. Of course publishers will charge as much as people are willing to pay, which is why boycotts are so effective — they announce to publishers what consumers are willing to pay!
I just recently have been finding Barnes and Noble E-books for more than 9.99. I’ve been reviewing them and complaining! Join in! I bought a book a couple weeks ago at 9.99 and it ROSE to 17.39! HOLY COW!
For a discussion of how the $12.99 e-book price is an attempt to boost publishers’ profits at the expense of authors, see http://www.fair.org/blog/2010/03/02/read-the-chart-not-the-nyt-article-to-get-the-straight-dope-on-book-profits/ .
The Kindle price should be no more than the cheapest Used price on the book’s Amazon web page. Amazon itself encourages people to sell their used paperbacks. So what’s the incentive to pay 9.99 for a Kindle book when there are 20 people selling used paperbacks for .01 ??? If I can get the book for a penny, plus 3 bucks shipping, I refuse to shell out 10 bucks for a Kindle edition. At least with a paperback book you can give it away. With a kindle book you only license the book; you do not own it and therefore can not give away the Kindle book you ordered.
@Bob Smith: I can tell you why I’d pay more than the paperback, because for the most part the print in paperbacks is too small for me to read comfortably. Now I am firmly ensconced in the e-book world and while I will read some hardcover books from the library, have not read paperbacks in years. If I buy fiction, it will be an e-book. And an iPad works for a lot of the non-fiction as well.