As many of you know I am a serious Harry Potter fan. I think the books are brilliant and that Harry Potter will be remembered as one of the greatest characters of all time. That is why I was interested in J.K Rowling’s new book, “The Casual Vacancy.” Whereas the Harry Potter series started out as books for children, this is a book written for adults. The book will be out in September but the Amazon’s book page is already up and running. So I stopped by to take a look and what I saw left me speechless.
Whereas the hardback will sell for $20.93, Rowling’s kindle book will sell for $19.99! I couldn’t believe my eyes. This price even has the old trick of proclaiming it is being “discounted” from the original list price of $35, so you “save $15.01 (43%),” yeah right. It seems that Jo has willingly or unwillingly walked into the traditional publisher’s dishonest scheme of pricing e-books the same as print books. How could she have allowed this to happen?
I admire(d) Rowling because she did things differently. She insisted on retaining a certain level of control over the movies to make sure directors would not do crazy things with them and was willing to give up a percentage of her profits in exchange for this. She was a visionary in allowing fans to write fiction based on her characters, and she also opposed the over-commercialization of the Harry Potter franchise.
In the discussions on the book page people have pointed out that it is the publisher (in this case Hachette Book Group), not the author, who sets the price. Although this is true, Rowling could have tried to negotiate this beforehand. I can only surmise that she is either ignorant of the whole e-book/print book controversy, she doesn’t care, or she agrees with the publisher’s point of view.
Whatever it may be, I am very disappointed. Jo, you gave us Harry Potter and for that I will be thankful forever. However, I will not buy your overpriced book no matter how good it is although when the book does come out, it being a JK Rowling book, I expect it will become a best seller. On the meantime I should take some solace from the fact that in the book tags 326 people have so far voted for the tag “overpriced kindle version,” so for what it is worth I am not alone.
Whereas the hardback will sell for $20.93, Rowling’s kindle book will sell for $19.99! I couldn’t believe my eyes. This price even has the old trick of proclaiming it is being “discounted” from the original list price of $35, so you “save $15.01 (43%),” yeah right. It seems that Jo has willingly or unwillingly walked into the traditional publisher’s dishonest scheme of pricing e-books the same as print books. How could she have allowed this to happen?
I admire(d) Rowling because she did things differently. She insisted on retaining a certain level of control over the movies to make sure directors would not do crazy things with them and was willing to give up a percentage of her profits in exchange for this. She was a visionary in allowing fans to write fiction based on her characters, and she also opposed the over-commercialization of the Harry Potter franchise.
In the discussions on the book page people have pointed out that it is the publisher (in this case Hachette Book Group), not the author, who sets the price. Although this is true, Rowling could have tried to negotiate this beforehand. I can only surmise that she is either ignorant of the whole e-book/print book controversy, she doesn’t care, or she agrees with the publisher’s point of view.
Whatever it may be, I am very disappointed. Jo, you gave us Harry Potter and for that I will be thankful forever. However, I will not buy your overpriced book no matter how good it is although when the book does come out, it being a JK Rowling book, I expect it will become a best seller. On the meantime I should take some solace from the fact that in the book tags 326 people have so far voted for the tag “overpriced kindle version,” so for what it is worth I am not alone.
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