Though the publishing world waits to see how e-book pricing will be affected in the long-run by the DoJ's ruling, the current climate of higher-priced e-books is perhaps being overlooked: six of the 10 Kindle bestsellers (as of September 18) are priced $9.99 or higher. The titles are frontlist (the Fifity Shades trilogy, Gone Girl, No Easy Day, and A Wanted Man) that are priced only slightly lower in e than p: the Fifty Shades books are actually more expensive as e-books, and Gone Girl is only 95 cents cheaper for Kindle.
Going farther down the Kindle bestseller list, the price discrepancy between print and e-book varies, but may be less significant than many think: many Kindle editions are only $1 or $2 less than their print counterparts, and high-ranked preorders like The Perfect Hope by Nora Roberts and Reflected in You are priced higher as e-books.
Two other big name titles are also raising the bar on what readers can expect to pay for their e-books: The Casual Vacancy, to be released September 27, has a Kindle price of $17.99 (hardcover is $20.90 on Amazon off of a $35 list)--and so far the print version is far outpacing its e counterpart: the hardcover is ranked #11 (as of September 18), while the Kindle edition is #134. The other high-priced title is Ken Follet's Winter of the World (Dutton). Clocking in at 960 pages, the hardcover sells for $21.00 on Amazon and the e-book for $19.99. In the days leading up to its publication, however, the high priced editions haven't hurt sales: it was ranked #7 and #15 in print and e-book, respectively, as of September 18, its pub date. At least one Amazon review has criticized the e-book price point--user Ali stated: "Even if you keep removing the bad comments, it will keep coming because the kindle price is so insane, I can't understand how the ebook price is equal to the hardcover... Please think again. Thank you."
