e-Book Price Hikes Are Coming?

Credit: ba1969

Remember the good old days when most Kindle e-books were available for $9.99. Even in those days, many of us were complaining about Amazon not making all e-books available for $9.99. Some of us were even asking for lower e-book prices. One thing that consumers forget is that publishers are for-profit companies. So they are not going to be happy with just a little bit profit when they can charge more for their e-books. We already know that Amazon has already caved in to MacMillan’s demands and allowed the publisher to set its own e-book prices. Are we surprised that other publishers are using that as a precedent to demand the same things from Amazon?

HarperCollins seems to be the latest company that is putting pressure on Amazon to increase its e-book prices to $14.99. That means the day of cheap e-books are over. Amazon has already given in once already. Other e-book publishers are not going to put up for less money when they can ask for more. And all of it could be due to Apple’s e-book pricing strategy for iPad. That is if Rupert Murdoch is telling the truth:

Apple — in its agreement with us, which has not been disclosed in detail — does allow for a variety of slightly higher prices… There will be prices very much less than the printed copies of books, but still will not be fixed in a way that Amazon has been doing it.

Remember how experts were claiming that Apple was not going to challenge Amazon with the iPad. The device itself may not be as good an e-reader, but Apple’s e-book pricing deals with publishers could force Amazon’s hands to increase its e-book prices. That move would be devastating for Kindle fans and Amazon itself. But things could be worse.

Unfortunately, we are living in crazy times. There was a time when consumers stood for something. It’s true that publishers and distributors set the prices for e-books. But it’s up to us consumers to figure out whether those prices are reasonable. While I am not suggesting a boycott of some of these greedy publishers, it is disappointing to see Amazon focusing more on them rather than its customers. Considering that you can’t sell your e-books back and even lend them to others, I am not sure the upcoming price hikes are going to go down too well.

Your turn: is $14.99 a reasonable starting price for e-books?