In the latest skirmish in the e-book war, Scribner announced this week that it will delay the e-book release of EW columnist and perennial best-seller Stephen King’s new novel, Under the Dome, until Dec. 24. That’s almost six weeks after the hardcover edition goes on sale November 10. “We think that this publishing sequence gives us the opportunity to maximize hardcover sales and at the same time allows people who receive a reading device or gift certificates as a holiday gift to enjoy the digital edition,” says Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for Scribner (an imprint of Viacom’s Simon & Schuster). In an exclusive comment to EW, the author himself was more blunt: “It’s time to give the smaller bookstores a little breathing room (although not much chance of that, with Walmart offering Dome for nine bucks.)” He’s referring to the fact that Walmart (as well as Amazon and Target) this week began offering his book, along with nine hot titles, for as little as $8.98. The retail price of King’s book is $35, which means these retailers are taking a loss on each book.
King is not alone in his concern about the impact the $9 price wars will have on traditional booksellers. The recent price-chopping has led the American Booksellers Association, which represents independent bookstores, to file an official complaint with the U.S. Justice Department, charging that the three retail behemoths are engaging in “illegal predatory pricing.” In a letter released yesterday, the ABA went on to say that the practice was “damaging to the book industry and harmful to consumers.” A top publishing executive tells EW: “They had no choice. Bookstores are simply under siege. On one side, they’re facing the threat of e-books, and on the other they’re staring in the face of these three ugly superpowers.” David Young, the CEO of Hachette Book Group USA (publisher of James Patterson’s upcoming I, Alex Cross, another one of the $8.98 titles), told the New York Times: “I do think this massive devaluation of the industry’s crown jewels could very quickly be extremely harmful. And I would not be alone in thinking that.”
How can traditional bookstores compete against giant retailers who are willing to sell books at a loss (a luxury that books-only retailers can’t afford to do)? And is it fair for publishers to fight back by delaying the release of e-book versions of new titles like Under the Dome? What do you think?
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$9 books are harmful to consumers how, exactly?
Well, if you don’t like the idea of small businesses and the culture of a bookstore, and think it is a good thing for all purchasing to happen at a Wal Mart, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, music fans recall how Best Buy destroyed music-only stores by selling CDs at tremendously low prices. Now that the music stores are gone, Best Buy only sells a fraction of what they used to, at a much higher price than before (unless it is something they are pushing in new releases). So once Wal Mart pushes out its competition, they can sell books for whatever they want and offer only whatever they want to order. Is this what you want?
It’s even scarier when you consider that by only offering books that they choose they can control what is available to the masses once they shut down smalle outlets. Pretty scary considering WalMart is a pretty conservative company ideologically speaking.
Correction, Melanie, it would be scary no matter which way WalMart leans ideologically.
When exactly did Best Buy sell CDs “at tremendously low prices”? Nowhere near me. Further, Walmart already “sell[s] books for whatever they want and offer[s] only whatever they want to order”. Plus, Walmart already has competition with Amazon, Target and Barnes and Noble Online.
Wow – you said it – something I don’t think many people even realize – you have to hike it to a major mall to find one itty bitty Music store now and Best Buy NEVER has the variety these stores used to have.
Because, once they’ve driven all of the books-only shops out of business, they can decide what books we have access to and for what price.
Megastores essentially wipe out the competition, this leads to a lack of variety in the market. This is bad for the consumer under any circumstances. However, when talking about books, music, films…it’s the homogenization of our culture on fast-forward. We need independent booksellers.
I am sorry for the small bookstores! I hate Walmart, and I won’t shop there until the merchandise is FREE (and steam cleaned, thank you very much) but I jumped on Amazon’s cheap books already. I can’t resist a bargain…..
To paraphrase Charlie Sheen in Wall Street, how many yachts can Stephen King water ski behind? $35? For a book? Seriously, if Stevie (EW columnist) cared about the “little guy,” he’d find a way to sell his book for a lot less than $35. Then the price war might not have been necessary.
Hate to tell you Rich, but the authors don’t set the price. Not even powerhouses such as King can not demand price reductions.
And don’t compare it to the music business, as they are two very different industries.
Fair enough. But my original question still stands. $35 for what? They’re also charging $35 for the ebook, a couple months after the hardback hits the shelves. No print costs, no shipping costs, no storage costs, etc. Yet they’re still charging $35. King may not set the costs, but he could refuse to sell the book to a publisher that charges that much. Or put it on his website and ask for donations. He (along with J.K. Rowling) may be the only author that could seriously affect the way the business is run.
It’s $35 list price so that everybody — small bookstores included — can mark the current bestsellers at 40% off and still make money. This $9 business is just a lower-cut version of what the business has done for years. Nobody pays $35 for bestsellers.
In terms of printed books, after they pay the author (on average $2 to $3 per book, normally less than that), the publisher’s gotta pay the printer, who pay for the paper, the book binding, the glue or stitching that holds the paper together, the wholesaler who stocks the book to send to retailers, etc, etc. What, you think the publisher gets that for free? That accounts for half the retail price of the printed book. The other half of the retail price allows the retailer to cover their costs (and give a discount if they want) and stay in business to keep selling books. Why publishers might set a retail price like that for ebook editions of books by big name authors is so they can recover some of the costs of publishing books by other developing authors (as not every book published is as successful as some of those by big name authors). So you can keep having new books to read.
Rich,
It’s obvious you don’t know how the publishing industry works, let alone the rights a writer doesn’t have-including big names like King. If you have a contract with a publisher-as King does with Scribner, you can’t just refuse to release a book. Well, not without a nasty lawsuit on the heels of that, anyway.
Also, nowhere in the article does it say how much the e-book will cost. The only price is for the hardcover. check other hardcover books and they’ll be in the same price range. doing a little research before posting something that makes you look ignorant is a good idea.
I agree with you. Many of the authors of the bestsellers are rich many times over. Some of us struggle to pay our bills and still be able to buy books. Give me a break. The little bookstores carry more books than the giants do. I personally help keep a couple books stores in business, buy books through a book club (9.95 by the way why weren’t they sreaming about that) and buy books in Target, Wal-Mart etc.
Book clubs were never a signifcant part of the market, so had very little, if any, impact on bookstore sales. The books they sold were also cheaply produced editions.
I’d like to introduce everyone who is complaining about the price of books to an amazing, wonderous place, where they let you read all the books you want for free…the library.
Walmart’s been undercutting prices on music CDs for years and look how well that turned out for the music industry…oh wait…
While $35 is quite alot for a book, I do wish people would use some context. For this $35, you receive days/weeks worth of entertainment which becomes your permanent property. You can later trade/loan with others for even more entertainment value. Meanwhile $35 in a movie theater, casino or bar gives you a couple of hours of entertainment and nothing belongs to you when you are done. I also agree, that $9 books will do the same thing to the mainstream retail book industry that already happened to traditional music stores. Say goodbye to product choice.
$35 is way to much for a book because after your done reading it- its only worth $9 and thats how Walmart does their pricing
Some people read books more than once.
I think its a shame that walmart and bigger companies are once again pushing the little guys out of the market.
As a side note Stephen King doesn’t set the thirty-five dollar price for a book.
I worked in a bookstore for years and authors make actually very little on their books. In fact bookstores make very little. They make their money selling the bargain that you find at the front of the store.
I enjoy waiting for and buying a new hard-bound book. Some people also collect first edition books. I will buy them anywhere, but would prefer to support the smaller bookstores when I can. I live near Seattle and Elliott Bay Bookstores, an iconic bookstore visited by many popular writers, is fighting for survival and may even move out of Pioneer Square to stay afloat. Yes, $35 may sound like a lot, but remember all the people who are supported by purchasing that book (not just the author).
Can’t really compare music to literature. I have always had headphones, so it never really mattered if I had a walkman, portable cd, or iPod. The music sounded the same. Can’t curl up by the fire with a good e-book. Can’t smell the paper or turn the pages. Can’t use the bookmark your daughter gave you. I am NOT buying e-books, and I avoid Wal-Mart like the plague. Unfortuantely I make enough money to be able to make this choice. The majority of Americans do not, and the bargains will rule. Goodbye newpapers, magazines, and the hardcover. Let’s all just stare at an LCD screen 24/7. After all, the lowest common denominator is an electronic file. No book – no publishing costs – cheap cheap cheap. Enjoy!
It’s funny, as a huge music fan, I feel the same way you do but in the exact opposite way. I am not interested in buying mp3 or AACs. I’ll pick one up here or there, but books on the other hand, they’re perfect in the eBook format.
I just can’t let go of the artwork of an album, and the warmth of the sound from a high quality CD or otherwise.
Books are just words on a page. Extra bulk to carry around and transport. If they weren’t so heavy and bulky, I would read more of them. Ta DA! ebook!
Different Strokes for different folks.
How can you not “curl up by the fire with a good e-book”?
$35 does seem like a LOT of money for a Stephen King novel…in this economy, it’s hard to justify paying the list price to help out the little guys when all of us are hurting.
I do enjoy smaller bookstores, but who wants to pay 35.00 for a book? Books have gotten way too expensive, which is why I primarily buy from Amazon. I just can’t pay that much for a book.
Publishers are in trouble. $35 is just to upset declines in sales across the board for ALL their books. Just wait. Eventually the model will be more like Author Readers with much fewer middlemen. We just need to wait a few years for the big publishing houses to croak and for a great e-platform to take off.
I have a Kindle, and I still support bookstores (where possible, here in the redneck riviera we have two). I also consider Amazon.com a close personal pal and am in the library so much they just go get my books for me without asking my name. All that said, I doubt that charging $35.00 a book is going to save the publishing industry and smaller bookstores, anymore than e-books are going to single-handedly kill it. People are going to buy books where they are cheapest. Why? Because we’re poor (and before someone makes a crack about the Kindle, my mom bought it for me, and got offended when I told her she was nuts, something about doing something nice for her kid). We’re going to buy where it is cheapest, especially if it is the exact same product of the exact same quality. You may not like it, but Under The Dome bought at Wally World, Target, Costco, etc, is going to look exactly the same as it does buying it at Borders, Barnes and Noble, or the cute little independent bookstore.
Yes, but once all those independent bookstores are gone, it will be Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble deciding what you’re going to read. Do you really want that?
Thanks guys who argue that you can’t compare music to books for making my point for me. Music has been commoditized to the point where people expect it to be free. Music and books are both forms of entertainment and their purchasing dollars both come out of your discretionary funds. It happened to music, it can happen to books just as easily.
Well one author appears to control his prices. C.J. Beck says he’s raising the price of SIXTEEN STORIES, NO PETS from $11.00 to $19.99 November 1. Says novelists receive only pennies in
royalties, months or years after a decade of distillation and hard work. Says there is ten years of hands-on research in his latest novel – part condo survival manual, part comic crime
mystery. I know a couple of years can go into an album for music that’s now reduced to a commodity we expect for free. Pass the hat.
If everything is cheap, then nothing has value. We’ve become spoiled and want as much as possible for as little as possible without regard to what something is really worth. When looking at the price of something, you have to consider how many people are employed because of that price. Let’s take the $35 for Stephen King’s new novel. That $35 dollars feeds the author (or, in the case of Mr. Patterson, the people who actually write his books), his agent, his agent’s employees, his editor, the publisher, the publisher’s sales reps, the warehouse people, the mail room staff, marketing and publicity people, all the other people at the publisher (from the cleaning crew to the CEO), the folks at the printer and bindery, the shipper, the various wholesalers’ employees, the bookstore owner and any emplyees, and librarians. People in the book industry generally love their jobs. It’s not a high-paying industry and most bookstores operate on such narrow margins that they barely make any money. Yet they provide a cultural hub for their communities (something Amazon and Wal-Mart do not), and often provide a venue for book lovers to meet authors. Anytime you buy a book (or any product), just remember that you are providing jobs as well as getting days of entertainment that can live forever on your shelf to be revisited at will or passed on to another book lover.
That’s absolutely precious; truly, you bring a tear to my eye. I’m still not paying $35 for a book I will read once then let linger in a box or closet somewhere until I finally donate it to the library’s used book sale, at which point someone will buy it for $1. Poor economics.
I hope you don’t bother spendng money on food. After all, you only eat it once and excrete it out. Bad economics there. Do you ever pay to go to the movies? $10 for 90 minutes, and you don’t even get to take the movie home with you. Do you buy gas? That’s a waste. Forty bucks to fill up your tank, and once you’ve driven somewhere it’s all gone. At least you get to keep the book, pass it along to a friend, donate it or sell it to a used book store, where it will continue to employ even more people.
It’s probably worth noting that Under the Dome is 1,088 pages long. That’s three (maybe four) times the length of many hardcovers — and costs significantly more to print. Also, the final Harry Potter book (759 pages) had a list price of $34.99.
This is the latest from StephenKing.com on the issue:
Kindle pricing for Under the Dome
Posted on: October 22nd, 2009 11:55:00 am
Dear Constant Readers,
Please don’t believe the press reports that the e-book reader price for Under the Dome will be $35. This was the result of confusion from a press release from the publisher, what Big Jim Rennie would call a clustermug. It is true that you cannot order the book as an e-download until December 24th, but the physical book, which is a beautiful thing, you can pre-order for less than $9–so who’s better than us?
-Steve
Personally, I loved Duma Key, and I can’t wait for the book, I’m pre-ordering mine!
I’d just like to say that Ms. Portia, in the comments above, utterly pwned “Mel,” and then made his momma cry. Well done, Portia, huzzah!
Before becoming a Corporate Cubicle Monkey, I spent my retail life in bookstores. I’ve worked at every major chain and a few Mom and Pops, and when I’m back home in D.C. I’ll ALWAYS give my business to Kramerbooks or Politics & Prose before setting foot in a Barnes & Noble because I remember what it was like being a bibliophile behind the counter. The indie will always have my business if I’m shopping for a small-press novel I’ve heard reviewed on Fresh Air, or maybe a new political book I’ve seen on CSPAN’s Book TV. Indies stock the little titles, help promote them, do lots of hand-selling, and earn their keep.
But for a thousand pages of new King thriller, I’ll take my business to Amazon and do so without guilt. And chances are, while I’m buying it there, the BookBot that knows me better than I do may recommend a book another buyer of Mr. King’s enjoyed, and maybe I’ll add that to my basket, since I’m getting such a steal on UNDER THE DOME. That’s what loss-leading does: baits me with the shiny new book for a low-low price from one of my favorite living authors, then makes me wander around in the Candy and Cereal Aisle before I get to the checkout counter. But I’ll spend that $9 now, as opposed to waiting 6 months for the inevitable appearance on the remainder stacks at $7.99, or the paperback 6 months after that. I own every Stephen King book there is in hardback, and have since long before the Wal-Marts and Amazons of the world made it inexpensive to do so.
I think my personal favorite is how the book stores are under siege from the “threat of e-books.” Why do I love this? Simply put, after all the downplaying of what a drop in the bucket e-book sales are, they are now going to claim that drop in the bucket is a threat to them? Snort. Though I hate to say it this way, I don’t put out e-books to make book stores happy; I do it to make READERS happy. There was a study done years ago that proves book stores are one of the worst places for your average author to make money. Maybe Stephen King is making money there, but I think we can agree that King and Nora Roberts and their peers are not your AVERAGE anything. What percentage of books (even print books) are ordered online? What tiny percentage of print titles (counting indie and NY together) get shelf space? Since the big NY conglomerates purchase space in some stores, that says it all, doesn’t it? If indie press is taking sales from NY, that says something about what readers want. If e-books are taking sales from print, that says something about what readers want. The $9 hard cover thing is undeniably the old robber baron technique. If it does anything good, perhaps it will force the long-coming change in the industry to a less wasteful system. That would be a good thing, IMO, though the short-term effects may sting, and the effects to smaller retailers may be insurmountable.
Brenna
Okay, I really beg to disagree that Wal-Mart will be your only choice, after this mess. Will it change how people buy books? Quite possibly. Will it put us under the thumb of Wal-Mart’s choices? No. Not without some sort of major political upheaval that makes going elsewhere impossible. You may not have corner bookshops that you can walk through and browse, and…yes, I agree that would be a major loss. There are other places to purchase books, print or e. It means becoming more savvy about where you purchase your books. That’s all.
Tina would like to send you an email, with a letter we wrote about the price war.
WAL-MART / AMAZON TOP TEN PRICING WAR
A SUGGESTED RESPONSE AND PLAN OF ACTION
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit that I am a fan of neither Wal-Mart nor Amazon. I have read the ABA request for investigation by the Department of Justice. Legally, I believe the ABA does not have proper grounds because virtually all “Predatory Pricing” complaints are initiated by the retail consumer, not trade organizations.
So as independent booksellers, how do we react to this price war?
Eliminating emotional pleas for government assistance, let’s examine a three part plan that is based upon pure logic and business financial acumen.
1) If you really want to up the ante and get the government to take action, then we MUST get the consumer involved. I propose having customers sign petitions in your stores and then submit them to the same parties listed in the ABA investigative request.
2) It is vital that the major industry distributors such as Baker and Taylor and Ingram get involved. At the moment they are suspiciously quiet. To a similar but lesser degree, we need to get the major publishers involved also. How? Quite simple, contact your distributor and/or publishers of the “Top Ten” and inform them that you will NOT be purchasing ANY copies of the “Top Ten” from them. Period.
3) Now, I ask you to discard your emotional response to the price war and consider the following scenario: A salesperson from a new book distributor comes into your store. They represent “The AWE Group” (e.g. Amazon Wholesale Enterprises). The rep informs you that they can provide the Top Ten list for $9.00 per copy with free shipping and a 30 day return policy.
Financially speaking, it is a better deal than the one offered by your normal distributor. As long as they are not stolen or remaindered, what else is there to know? Here’s why I am not concerned:
a) This price war will NEVER extend to the other 50,000+ books my store carries. It is financially impossible for the SWAT (Sears, Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target) team to become the top tier booksellers by selling everything below cost. Nor do they want to be…
Let’s not forget that this really a battle between these four corporations to dominate online buying of their OTHER merchandise by using books as loss leaders. It could just as easily been the Top Ten movie DVD or music products. Would we have complained?
b) My store has NEVER depended upon sales of the Top Ten to keep its doors open. So what if the SWAT team becomes the de facto wholesaler of the Top Ten. There are a few people who will only read 2-3 books per year based upon author popularity. Let the SWAT team have them! A true book buyer likes to browse the myriad offerings of a real bookstore. They will buy many more books than simply the Top Ten over the course of a year.
c) I fully intend to buy three copies (or the allowable maximum) of the Top Ten, mark them up appropriately and sell them at a greater profit than my distributor can offer. My customers will still buy them from me. Why? Because consumers still respect personalized service and knowledgeable staff that can only be offered by an independent. Don’t underestimate the dedication your customers already have to YOUR store.
Other than college students, book lovers are NOT necessarily looking for the best price. I sold a case of The Lost Symbol at nearly full list while you could buy it online from Barnes and Noble at 40% off!
d) If they don’t sell, then I’ll take full advantage of the 30 day return policy offered by Amazon. AWE shucks!
The above plan seems to me to be a logical response. If 3000 independent booksellers purchase 30 books (3 copies each of the Top Ten), that’s 90,000 books that your distributor and/or publisher did not sell to YOU directly for a profit! That will get their attention. Now, if half (45,000+) of those books are returned to AWE, they will probably then return them to the publisher. That will get THEIR attention because they cannot resell them to us. If the books are not returnable to the publisher, then the AWE Group has to eat the full expense. That will then get THEIR attention.
How long do you think they will continue this until they select another consumer product that is easier to manipulate pricing? Do not look at this approach as giving money to the enemy. Every copy you buy INCREASES their inventory expense loss ratio. When the returns start rolling in, it will be even worse.
Until a winner is declared in the online shopping battle of GENERAL merchandise, I say we take full advantage of the trade war to our own benefit.
Steve Guynn
Sherlock’s Book Emporium
Lebanon Tennessee
I have always supported the local bookstores as well as Borders. I have always bought any book I wanted regarless of price as they are printed. As much as I would like to keep supporting these stores I am no longer able to afford $35.00 for one book. For the same price that Borders (even with a discount plus shipping) I can three upcoming books by my favorite authors. I read up to three books a week depending on size, etc. So I am sorry that I can no longer justify paying full price for a book. If things in this county turn around and I am able to afford the same luxury that I have had in the past, I am sure that I will once again buy books in the book store. Right now the difference between $9.00 and $35.00 does pay for food (even tho I go to the bathroom every day) or gas so that I can get to work.
When “The Stand” first came out, and then the “revised” edition came out, I remember Stephen King stating that the “publisher” would not allow the “full” version because the price would be to high! When I was old enough to “buy” books instead of waiting forever for them to come back to the library, I could only afford to wait for the paperbacks to come out. I still own my paperback of “Carrie”. I will spend the $9.00 and buy the book that cheap, because right now, I couldn’t even think about spending $35.00 on a book! It isn’t the author who suggests the price. They get a lump sum for a book they haven’t even written yet! Yes the also get money from the sales. They will get money from the $9.00 as well as the $35.00. I too would like to know WHEN, Best Buy sold Cd’s cheaper than anyone else. It sure didn’t happen in my corner of the world. In my corner of the world, we don’t have any small books stores anymore, just second hand book stores. We do have Hastings, Barns & Noble & Borders. Those three places helped to get rid of our wonderful small books stores! I do hate Wal-mart, but for $9.00, I’ll go there! I have a resentment, because MY favorite small book store had to close down to make room for Hastings! I don’t blame the Authors. As the old saying goes Crap rolls down the hill. Sooo, I’ll stay at the bottom and save $26.00 for my next book.
I was going to buy it for my Kindle, but now I’ll just wait. This sucks, Stephen King.
Agreed David. I’m not lugging that big book around so I will wait for it on Kindle, but it sucks I HAVE to wait!
This point has probably been made already, but why wait to delay the book in ebook format? The publishers don’t lose any money on that, in my opinion. No overstock, no paper cost, no shipping cost. If they are aiming for the Christmas crowd, why hurt those
who already have said devices? The e-books will be there for people who open up Kindles and eReaders during the holidays.
Great comments regarding Walmart and Amazon online price war ($8.99 everywhere). I for one will support my independent bookstore or go to my local library and borrow the book. Not sure if you know this but most libraries have to pay full price for their books through publisher distribution channels. Kindle readers should be patient. You never know what’s going to happen w/the digital editions. You may not have to wait at all. Stay tuned.
this seems to be a problem in the States only….I just checked Stephen Kings new book on Amazon.ca and there discounted price is $25.19 am I missing something here? will also check out Wallmart once the book is released.
Under The Dome, at Target, is $22. Fact check!