Fixing Kindle Pricing

So Amazon are bumping the starting price for the third-gen Kindle down to only $US139. That was enough to get me thinking, “Hey, maybe I could do with one of these.” I decided to search out several titles I’m vaguely interested in, to see how much I could theoretically save (over the long run) in locking myself in with Amazon.

Dave Egger’s Zeitoun sells for $10.85 in paperback (used from $8.95), and $11.99 as a Kindle edition. Nick Hornby’s Juliet, Naked sells for $10.12 in paperback and $11.99 Kindle. Amazon are competing with themselves – and losing. Every time Amazon publishes the Kindle price next to a lower paperback price, they’re loudly proclaiming, “Yeah, we fucked this.”

Now, how about selection? I can purchase Chris Cleave’s Little Bee in six different types of paperback, hardcover, and audio CD formats, but can’t get the book on Kindle. Because I live in Australia. Amazon can bypass copyright when they ship physical items, but they’re constrained when it comes to ebooks. And, of course, anything published on small-press is strictly off-limits for Kindle owners, because small-press don’t have the time to mess around with compiling and submitting ePub files.

Amazon aren’t fucking up, necessarily, but they better at least be aware that prospective Kindle buyers find the pricing and selection of Kindle editions a huge joke. I’d feel more comfortable if I knew that Amazon execs were worried about these issues – if there was some kind of commitment to, over the coming months, engage in discussions with publishers to bring the prices of Kindle editions down to more competitive levels. Even a basic commitment to price parity between Kindle ebooks and paperbacks would suffice.

But the Kindle has been around for several years, and not a lot has changed. Amazon are victims of their own success – too good at shipping paperbacks quickly, cheaply, and conveniently that most of us are left to wonder, “Who needs a Kindle?”