Harper Collins’ generosity in offering 28 free books yesterday might have been a mistake (or an interesting marketing strategy). Nearly all the free books offered yesterday have been pulled. What makes it likely to be a mistake is that it wasn’t just that the price was increased – the books themselves were pulled.
How can you ensure you get free books before the offer ends or before they get pulled?
Well, check this blog daily or subscribe to it via email (button on the right side column) – That way you know instantly and can download books as soon as they become free.
Here are the various things that happen -
- Books are made free just for a few days to get attention (and a spot in the bestsellers’ list).
- Stunts like yesterday’s where it’s a new marketing test or a mistake.
- There are certain companies that have regularly scheduled weekly or monthly free offers – such as Samhain Publishing.
- Certain books might have set targets i.e. they want to let 100,000 Kindle owners download them for marketing and then they’ll shut off the offer. This is speculation – though it does make a lot of sense.
The 17 free books were first written about on this blog and you would’ve had access to them before almost everyone else. The remaining 11 books were also found and written about well in time.
What were Harper Collins trying to do?
Let’s think about it -
- 10 of the 13 Lemony Snicket books were free – The usual pattern is to have the first or first 2 books free.
- 3 of the Tony Buzan books were free – Marketing would need only one.
- The number of free books was much more (28) than what Publishers usually do (2 or 3 free books).
The two likeliest possibilities are a new marketing test or a mistake.
Given that this happened in the midst of a shift to the Agency Model it’s very likely that while setting new prices the Harper Collins representative made a mistake on 28 out of the tens of thousands of books. It got caught and written about and it being Saturday and iPad launch day it took Harper Collins a day or so to figure out the mistake.
The most inauspicious start possible to the Agency Model?
Who would have thought that after adopting the Agency Model dozens of Harper Collins books would hit the Top 100 – Too bad they’re priced at $0.
Perhaps it’s a sign for Harper Collins that by trying to kill eBooks and move to the Agency Model they’ll be losing a lot of money from book sales – People are going to be downloading pirated books for $0 instead of paying for over-priced titles.
It’d be great to get some clarification from Harper Collins on their generosity and why it was limited to the Kindle Store. Apple helped the Agency Model come into existence and publishers want to push iBooks – Wouldn’t Apple have been the obvious candidate to get free book offers?
Filed under: thoughts Tagged: | cowardly agency model
WSJ.com – Random House Balks At Apple Book Pricing. Non-subscription link:
http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1043260594
Excerpts:
“Random House was the only major publisher whose titles couldn’t be bought from Apple’s iBooks application over the weekend, having resisted the new pricing model that Apple has offered. Although publishers make less money per unit sale under Apple’s “agency” pricing model, they fear universal $9.99 e-book best sellers create the impression all new books are worth only $10. The Random House executive had doubts about whether publishers have the retail experience to know how and when to discount certain titles in order to drive sales and suggested contractual questions with authors may arise now that publishers are also effectively acting as retailers by setting their own prices under Apple’s model.”
This is a coherent analysis of the pricing model and of the risks publishers take when trying to perform an unaccustomed retail pricing role.
Must be an easier way to post this kind of information and/or get to swtich 11
WSJ.com – Some Publishers Wary Of Selling on iTunes
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052702303450704575160074073113744.html?mod=mostpop
Excerpt:
“Some newspaper and magazine companies have resisted selling through iTunes in part because more than seven of every 10 U.S. periodical copies are sold through subscriptions. The publishers complain they have to give Apple a 30% cut of all revenue and get very little information about their readers in return. Publishers use reader information to retain and draw new subscribers and set marketing plans, among other uses.”