eReader Now Matching Amazon E-book Pricing
I am a big fan of e-books and a long-time customer of eReader, a Fictionwise company. One area of eReader’s business model that I’ve been less than happy with, however, is the pricing of newly released books. Its pricing has always been competitive with paper book releases, but not with Amazon’s new release pricing for Kindle e-books. That has all changed, according to an email I got from Fictionwise today.
Amazon Kindle customers have enjoyed paying just $9.95 for newly released books, and for good reason. That pricing compares nicely with hardcover book prices, as it is much cheaper — as it should be. The cost of producing e-books is obviously much lower than that of printing real, dead-tree books, and the Amazon pricing makes perfect sense.
I’ve purchased new releases from Amazon instead of Fictionwise for that very reason — the eReader price was simply too high. I was thrilled to get this notice today from Fictionwise that details its new pricing scheme:
- No e-book priced over $12.95
- All new e-books $9.95 or less
- All New York Times bestsellers $9.95
- Plus 15% rewards on all purchases
This is wonderful news and will save me big bags of money. It shows how great competition is for the consumer and also how good Fictionwise’s purchasing strength must be now that it belongs to Barnes & Noble.
Now, if they’d just release eReader for the Pre all would be right in my eBook world…sigh. And no, Crap Classic is in no way an option. $30!
This is great news. I am glad I stuck with ereader after all these years.
Awesome to hear this — especially since the eReader rewards add up so quickly, making it even cheaper; not to mention the fact that the eReader app on the iPhone blows the Kindle app out of the water.
That’s great news but this post is confusing. Yes, I’m aware that Fictionwise bought eReader but they remain two separate sites with two separate price lists. The interchangeable use of the two companies in your post made the story unclear to me.
Looking at my Wishlist at Fictionwise I see that the price guarantee of “no book over $12.95″ is only relevant to eReader’s site.
We’re all confused. Fictionwise bought eReader a while back but continues to operate both online retail shops. Barnes & Noble bought Fictionwise so they own both shops now. I wonder if they will merge the two at some point.
This is really incredible for the same parent company to be offering Niall Ferguson’s “The Ascent of Money” for $29.95 on one page (Fictionwise.com) and $12.95 plus a credit rebate on another (eReader.com)!
Some more from my wishlist:
Daemon By Daniel Suarez ($26.95 @ F, $12.95 @ e)
The Long Fall By Walter Mosley ($25.95 @ F, $12.95 @ e)
World Without End By K.Follett ($22.00 @ F, $12.95 @ e)
I save over $50 on these 4 books just by buying from what is effectively a different department in the same company. Absurd!
I wish I’d known this last week. I bought Lord of the Rings from stanza.fictionwise.com for $28.99. It’s now listed at $9.95 on ereader.com.
There really needs to be some consistency between the 3 sites. I am reading Fatal Revenant by Stephen Donaldson in paperback at the moment. It’s a long, heavy going but excellent book that I’ve been reading for a long time. Having read your post I thought I’d look for it as an eBook. Here’s what I found:
fictiowise.com: $27.95
stanza.fictionwise.com $27.95 (not available to UK residents)
ereader.com $12.95
I know which site I just bought it from
It’s now on my iPhone in eReader as a direct download and Stanza via my Mac and a desktop share. it would be nice if the bookshelves from the three sites were integrated and also the prices matched each other.
I just wish they also supported epub in their reader software
James, it’s not *that* confusing but the post makes it so. Apart from the first mention (“a Fictionwise company”) all uses of the word “Fictionwise” in your post should have been eReader. Then the post would have been (a) less confusing, and (b) correct – Fictionwise haven’t reduced their prices, eReader have.
I hear what you’re saying. The problem is that the company IS Fictionwise and that’s why I kept saying I got the notice from them. I suspect they will have to match their own (eReader) pricing on the Fictionwise site if they keep both retail outlets open.
This is great news! Hopefully they won’t RAISE the prices of everything up to the $9.95 price point too!
I have an ereader and get periodic emails from Sony’s ereader division, but haven’t recived anything about a reduction in prices. I got an email just yesterday that shows three featured books for over $14.
I also was asked to participate in a survey. The survey had a few themes:
1. Questions about one’s attitude towards Sony
2. Questions if you own another reader device
3. Trying to gauge if you lie about reading books to impress others or participate in conversations.
4. Questions if you read serious or popular books
5. One question asking what other type of content (newspapers, etc.) you’d like to see.
There were no questions about pricing or wi-fi capability.
Can you buy a “book” and read it on a tablet, a PocketPC and an iPod touch, or would you need to buy 3 copies? If you can share an ebook between your devices, can you synch them?
You only buy the e-book once and can use it on as many devices as you want. There is no syncing between devices although the iPhone versions syncs to the online bookshelf.
Quick question.
I just got my Kindle DX and am wondering the best way to purchase/install ereader content? I don’t see anyway to accomplish that.
Coming from a Sony prs500 I find the DX very impressive. And am enjoying the reading experience on it.
thx
No can do, the Kindle has its own format and eReader has another.
Now this is wild…just playing between the two sites (eReader and Fictionwise)… I can find some books that are cheaper on eReader, and some that are cheaper on Fictionwise – no consistancy. Also, although eReader looks like their downloads will only work with the eReader software, Fictionwise has multiple versions available including, according to them, versions compatible with the Kindle and Sony readers.
My goodness…decisions, decisions!