Now publishers are set to determine the prices of e-books after having emerged victorious in the e-book pricing war with Amazon.
Most e-books will cost between $12.99 and $14.99, higher than Amazon’s $9.99 standard, but some newer titles will still be priced at $9.99, according to the reports.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to halt heavy discounting of e-book best sellers in new pricing deals with two major publishers. The e-book agreements have been signed with CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster and News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers. Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins have joined the Macmillan in refusing to allow retailers to set e-book prices.
These deals are seen as the replica of the deals signed between the publishing houses and Apple. Amazon was forced to reconsider its stance in order to stay competitive with Apple’s iPad, Amazon eventually relented after many popular Macmillan titles disappeared from the site. What prompted this change was when many of them refused Amazon.com’s at a $9.99 price and welcomed the iPad’s intent to sell e-books in the $15 range.
However, Amazon declined to comment on the Wall Street Journal article.
Furthermore, Random House, the world’s largest book publisher, isn’t yet decided on Apple and Amazon, maybe out of a fear of the negative influence iPad might have on e-book pricing.
Experts have ruled that with the control shifting into the publisher’s hands could have a negative impact on the growth of the e-book market.
With the iPad’s launch just days away the pressure is mounting on Amazon.
Amazon currently controls about 90 percent of the e-book market but what is worrisome is that this market share is expected to dip.
Another debate that is doing the rounds is what type of e-reader is easiest on the eyes.
Many e-readers, reflect light like ordinary paper, use no backlighting and are black and white only. The Amazon.com Inc. Kindle, Sony Corp.’s Reader and Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook, use what’s called e-paper technology created by Cambridge, Mass.-based E Ink Corp. These screens use tiny capsules filled with charged black-and-white particles to give the appearance of ink on paper.
Whereas, the iPad uses back-lit liquid-crystal-display technology for its screen. This can light up in a dark room and is in color. Apple says the color iPad screen also uses a new display technology called “in-plane switching” to give it the ability to see it from an angle.