Prices for “Oprah” are all over the lot – from $9.99 to $30

What about Apple?

I thought this new agency pricing was supposed to make prices the same everywhere, but I noticed in looking for a book earlier today (31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan) and noticed that pricing seems to be all over the place just as it was before. The only difference is I had to pay sales tax.

@AnemicOak: The Oprah book is published by Crown Publishing, which is part of Random House. They aren’t using Agency Model pricing.

31 Bond Street is published by HarperCollins, so is using Agency Model pricing. The HC specified minimum price is $12.99. Amazon is selling it for that price, Barnes & Noble is selling it for that price, eBooks.com is selling it for that price except in Adobe EPUB format. Sony lists it slightly higher at $13.64.

@Doug

…and Books on Board is selling it for $9.99 which is what Harper’s ebook store says is the list price. Harper’s main site says list is $19.99

I guess I didn’t pay attention the the ‘Oprah’ pub. I figured since it was making the ‘news’ so to speak it had to do with the new pricing. With a pub using non agency pricing and having prices all over the board it’s not any kind of news it’s just business as usual.

Another interesting thing, I read an article that the author of that book is having trouble getting booked on talk shows because all the talk show hosts have business relationships with Oprah and don’t want to rock the boat. So I wonder if they are playing with the book price to try and make up the business from lost tv promo time?

Can someone with iBooks and an iPad look this up? How much on Apple?

“…So I wonder if they are playing with the book price to try and make up the business from lost tv promo time?”

Ebook prices for a new release that also comes out in Hardcover have always varied between $10 (at least since Amazon) and $30+ depending on store. I don’t see what makes this one title exceptional.

Aaron, last I read you can’t get Random House titles through iBooks/Apple.

Kobo has been pricing its books competitively. Wonder how long they can keep it up.

(p.s. – it’s “piqued” not “peaked” – sorry to be pedantic, but…)

Kobo has been pricing its books competitively. Wonder how long they can keep it up.

(p.s. – it’s “piqued” not “peaked” – sorry to be pedantic, but…)

Aaron: So far I can’t even find the Oprah bio in the Apple store. Because a branch of Random House published it? Love the e-book wars.

Everyone: Meanwhile I’m endlessly grumpy about Kobo–because I bought the bio (relevant to my media-related site at solomonscandals.com) but the company has not even prepared an edition for the iPad. Did I miss seeing a warning? Joanna perhaps can talk to her friends there and see what’s up.

Thanks,
David

Update: Kobo’s version of the Oprah book is now both buyable and readable. – David

Doug says:
31 Bond Street is published by HarperCollins, so is using Agency Model pricing. The HC specified minimum price is $12.99.

I guess I don’t understand the Agency Model pricing. I thought the publisher set the price, so the price would be the same at all retailers, not that it would be a minimum price and retailers could charge more if they wanted to.

“I guess I don’t understand the Agency Model pricing. I thought the publisher set the price, so the price would be the same at all retailers, not that it would be a minimum price and retailers could charge more if they wanted to.”

That was my thinking too. Instead of $9.99 to $13.64 the book should cost the same everywhere.

What’s happening at fictionwise? Why aren’t they carrying these books? They have pulled a number of authors and seem to indicate they are having trouble with their suppliers and yet the books are available from Sony… I’m a big fictionwise customer, but concerned about recent events there.