Three very large publishers signed deals with Amazon gaining the right to set prices themselves. Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon & Schuster were very pleased with winning this battle, but it’s starting to look as though the readers were a lot less impressed.
For centuries publishers have told readers what they can read, how long they have to wait to get it, and how much they have to pay for it, by their method of choosing which books to publish, when to release them, geoblocking sales zones, and rigidly controlling writers’ contracts.
But just as vast numbers of authors have gone digital and self-published, avoiding the traditional publishers, to the great delight of readers, it is starting to look like readers are avoiding the higher prices these three publishers are setting for their new digital releases. While large numbers of books from these publishers are priced at $13.99 and $14.99, no title priced at more than $9.99 was on the top twenty bestseller lists.
Food for thought.
Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com
Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.
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