I'm seriously considering getting the nook to keep the number of paperbacks down (I currently have over 500 paper books at home, and I'm frankly getting sick of it), and buy majority of the fiction through eBook.

For my first eBook, I wanted to get, "The Stand" by Stephen King. I do have the eBook reader on my iTouch, so I can read a little prior getting the nook if I am 100% committed.

However...for a paperback, it costs $9. On B&N's website for the eBook, it's $40. What the heck is up with that?! I got the sample and it's exactly the same as the paperback. I even spoke to one of the B&N employee...I got the brush off and he said, "It's a different edition". I don't think it is.

Anyone have any idea why the eBook is $40?

Are you sure you weren't looking at the ~audiobook~ version?

Nope.

Suggestion in 2) sounds more likely.

Publishers are definitely stupid when it comes to this a lot of the time in their fear and loathing, but not so they go quite that far.

e.g. for someone who has massmarket paperbacks of everything forever, trying to sell 25-35 dollar ebooks is dumb. Especially give you can get them for nothing easily if you feel like it, especially this author.

You'll certainly be able to buy it for less than that, too.

What you could do is find one that is 1/3rd the price, then ask your original people 'so why is yours 3 times as much for the same edition', if they are going to give you smartarse answers. :)

2

Nope, 1 is definitely right :-

More Formats
Available in eBook $40.00
Hardcover - Unabridged $37.50

That's just idiocy. 'List price' is $50!

Or, there never has been, and never will be a very popular novel worth $50 in today's monopoly money.

That's just absurd.

There are some articles and blogs noting B&N's pricing of ebooks compared to Amazon. B&N is charging 30% to 75% more for many non-public domain ebooks than Amazon is. Some irate people are canceling their Nook pre-orders. B&N is going to have to be competitive in ebook pricing to succeed.

WOW! That's unbelievable! My apologies for ever doubting you, AilurophileDJ.

I have the new Sony touchscreen eReader. I checked the Sony ebookstore and The Stand is $17.50

Sony Ebookstore The Stand

I have noticed several discrepancies with ebooks from store to store and between paper and ebook.

I guess I should have put a link to prove it!

The problem I have with Kindle (although I've heard some bad things about Kindle 2), is that I can't touch and feel it, and I just like nook's features better than Kindle 2.

I'm so on the fence! :-)

VisibleGhost - is there a website that can compare eBook pricings? I would think it's better to get the nook because you're not restricted to only B&N's eBooks...but any ebook format will do. Kindle - you're stuck with only Amazon.

EDIT: Found it (duh, Google is my friend) http://www.ebookprice.info/

Message edited by its author, Nov 7, 2009, 10:30pm.

"I would think it's better to get the nook because you're not restricted to only B&N's eBooks...but any ebook format will do"

Well - any except the .mobi from amazon.

Make sure you contact BaN and let them know you're not buying a book from them because of the price. This is the only way that they'll reduce prices - if lots of customers complain.

Well, I guess it's a good thing that I live in Canada - don't have to worry about pesky things like options or comparison shopping... I can buy a Sony reader and ... oh, a Sony reader.

"Well - any except the .mobi from amazon.

Make sure you contact BaN and let them know you're not buying a book from them because of the price. This is the only way that they'll reduce prices - if lots of customers complain."

Yeah..except Kindle version. But you know what sucks even more? Suppose a Kindle 1 decides that the nook is more appealing than Kindle 2 (if they didn't decide to upgrade), all of the books/subscriptions that they had...and some users can actually amount to over 100 books or so...sadly, they can't use the nook. Am I right? That's kind of "too bad" attitude from Amazon to put restriction on the purchases.

I will contact them about "The Stand" - there has got to be a reason why it's so unbelievably high.

I contacted B&N and got a speedy response. They said, "The pricing for our ebooks is actually set by the publisher. We strive
to give our customers the best prices, and we have thousands of ebook
titles priced under $10, however, that title is not one of them.

We hope you find this information helpful, and we encourage you to check
our site regularly for price changes and updates."

I find that a little hard to believe...I can find the same eBook for less than $20. I don't understand why it's still pretty high though. I ended up getting the paperback.

Yeah, this cannot be always true. I have noticed that Kindle versions of ebooks can be much cheaper than other ebook versions. Of course since Amazon is so big (like Wallymart) they probably get special consideration.