We have the Kindle 3 being sold in the UK from Amazon’s UK site now and there is also a separate Kindle UK store with around 400,000 books.
The prices are astonishingly low. Let’s dive into the low prices and then figure out why prices would be so low.
Kindle UK – Ridiculously low prices
Keep in mind that the cost of living in UK is probably higher than in the US (at least in London it is). So, all other things being equal, you’d assume the prices of books for the Kindle UK would be a little higher.
However, they’re actually much lower.
We have Stephen at the Kindle Nation blog point out the discrepancy -
Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – $9.99 in the US, $4.29 for Kindle UK (after conversion).
The Girl who played with Fire – $7.99 in the US, $4.29 for Kindle UK.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett – $12.99 in the US, $4.44 for Kindle UK.
You can check out prices yourself at the Kindle UK Store. It’s really quite remarkable.
Stephen also adds -
a US Kindle customer could have purchased the top 25 bestselling books in the US Kindle Store sales rankings for a grand total of $252.10.
a UK Kindle customer could have purchased the top 25 bestselling books in the UK Kindle Store sales rankings for a grand total of £99.13, which is the equivalent of $157.58 in US dollars
That’s a remarkably high difference – $94.52 across 25 books. US customers are paying approximately $10 a book while UK customers will be paying approximately $6.30 a book.
The prices verge on borderline insanity. Here’s what Amazon’s Press Release includes -
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest Stieg Larsson £2.70
The Help Kathryn Stockett £2.79
One Day David Nicholls £2.79
The Lost Symbol Dan Brown £3.41
The Legacy Katherine Webb £3.35Eclipse Stephenie Meyer £3.14
I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett £8.54
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex Eoin Colfer £5.84
Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert £3.58
The Third Man Peter Mandelson £11.25
The Kindle 3 is for £149 and Kindle WiFi is for £109. So it’s not like Kindle UK owners are paying a premium for the eReaders.
Why are books for Kindle UK so cheap?
Stephen Windwalker says it’s mostly due to the Agency Model. That’s accurate – Agency Model plays a big part. However, we also have Amazon trying to make the Kindle 3 a hit in the UK. It’s no secret that the UK isn’t embracing ebooks and eReaders the way the US is.
The first problem is that UK customers have expressed a strong dislike of paying in US dollars and getting charged fees by their banks. There’s probably a problem with the books being in US English too – warranting a separate UK book store.
The second problem, and this has been analyzed a lot at sites like The Bookseller, is that eReaders have been met with a ‘I prefer paper books/We don’t really need an eReader’ attitude. Notice how Amazon isn’t just going for $9.99 – It’s going for $6.99. It’s going to do all it can to get over the initial adverse reactions. At prices like £3 and £4 it might work.
The third challenge is that UK bookstores and chains discount bestsellers to the point of insanity. While they aren’t as cheap as Kindle UK book prices they are much cheaper than in the US. To make ebooks seem more appealing Amazon has to go well below $9.99 (because the chains already have discounted hardcovers at $9.99). Note that the discounting usually doesn’t extend to non-bestsellers.
Obviously, the lack of the Agency Model plays a crucial part as it lets Amazon set such low prices. However, the fact that books for Kindle UK are hovering around $6.99 and not $9.99 has more to do with the environment in the UK and UK readers’ resistance to eReaders.
Will Kindle 3 and £4 Kindle books be able to break through?
It’s a very good question.
- The UK gets its own Kindle Store and readers don’t have to pay shipping and duties on Kindle 3 – That certainly reduces the cost of entry.
- Books for Kindle UK are extraordinarily cheap and can be bought in pound sterling – That makes it very tempting.
- There are 400,000 books available now – That’s far more range than available in the past when some ebook stores had just 50,000 books.
- The books are almost certainly in British English and that obviously helps.
- There is precious little competition as Nook isn’t even available in the UK.
The one factor that might be outside Amazon’s control is that readers in the UK have shown little inclination to embrace eReaders and eBooks. However, as these comments at The Bookseller show, it might be hard to resist such low prices -
Jason: Blimey. People always say the ebook v print debate comes down to format preference, but when e-prices are so low, surely the price point will be the main driver behind e-sales.
S. Payne: I agree with Jason. I don’t own an e-reader as I’ve always prefered the olfactory beauty of hard-copy books. However, I do own an iPhone and know if I download the free Kindle app I can buy Stieg Larsson for a third of the price of a book. Tempting.
For some reason Amazon has decided that the UK market is a must-win, that the Kindle 3 is the device to win it with, and super-cheap ebook prices are the key. In another year we’ll know whether the low prices help make Kindle UK a success.
Filed under: kindle 3 Tagged: | kindle uk, kindle uk release date
And the worst part is that only UK residents can purchase books from Amazon UK
ha ha. how the tables have turned.
Good analysis. Thanks.
The biggest single reason that UK readers are behind the US eBook curve is not just reticence (that too) but that Amazon has not kick-started it yet. A UK visitor to amazon.co.uk would hardly know the Kindle existed. As Amazon.com filled its prime real estate on the front page with enormous splash ads for the Kindle, there was usually nothing on the UK site. There is now!
It was as though the International Kindle was about sowing seeds to capture the world-wide early adopters. These readers would be great for Jeff’s metrics and a vanguard for when they launch in a more serious way.
The single biggest reason that UK readers think that eBooks are rubbish is that Amazon has not educated them yet. That is about to change.
I imagine that, behind the scenes, other countries are being prepped for their own launches too. This (and multi-lingual fonts) is a signal that Amazon really does have the world in its sights. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
As a DTP user, I got mail this morning reminding me to make sure that I ticked the box to sell in the UK. A quick search on the amazon.co.uk site confirmed that Dreamwords is there and priced in UKP – all without me doing a thing.
I remember comparing Kindle US ebook prices a few years ago with those in the Sony store and elsewhere. It was obvious that price and lack of visibility were the key reasons ebooks (and eink devices) were slow to take off, even in the US.
Anyone in the UK comparing the Sony UK store with Kindle UK will see an even greater disparity and publishers will be looking on with a mix of hope and horror. The game is on.
I was very pleasantly surprised by the UK ebook prices! Fantastic
But it is true that we do get lots of heavily discounted books here. Hubby who is still not on board with ereading is always picking up reasonably new books for 2-3 UK pounds.
And Amazon need to advertise Kindle more in the UK. I am the only one amoung family/friends to even have an ereader despite everyone shopping on Amazon.
Typed on my Kindle – the 3g comes in handy when our wifi is down!
that’s cool that your comment is from the kindle.
I am more than a little miffed that ebooks are so much cheaper in the UK. I just ordered a kindle 3, and I will be joining the boycott of books over $9.99, and probably over $5.99 as well! There are plenty of free books I haven’t read yet so I will be busy with those for quite some time. It will take lower prices to tempt me to buy.
It’s just to sell Kindles and because hardcovers in UK are heavily discounted. $9.99 is pretty fair.
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