So it looks like Amazon has now completely restored the Macmillan stuff: books back up, Kindle up, good to go.  I hate them a little less right now--but only a little.

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Thank you, IJ. Listening to writers talk business is pretty scary.
Well, I mostly agree with you, Jack, but it is our business, so we do need to try and understand it a little.
Doesn't it seem odd to anybody else that increased competition is resulting in higher prices? What's up with that?

As far as iPad vs Kindle: One thing that has been left out of the discussion, I feel, is the fact that Kindle already has an established consumer base. The iPad does not. Yes, of course Apple has its cult base of consumers who buy their products, but none yet for the iPad, since it hasn't been released yet. The Kindle does.

Consider video games.

The Xbox 360 was released in late 2005. It was the first of its generation of game consoles, the first HD game console. Naturally, it was very popular. Sony was late to the party, however, releasing its Playstation 3 in late 2006, almost exactly a year after the Xbox 360. The PS3 was also a lot more expensive, but it had more advanced hardware too.

Yet the Xbox 360 continued to dominate the market. Online multiplayer was a big feature on these consoles. With the PS3, multiplayer was free, but with the Xbox 360 you have to pay $50 a month for an account. Yet still the Xbox 360 is more popular. Only now is the PS3 catching up to the Xbox 360, and I believe a large component of the reason for that is that the Xbox 360 got a head start and established the culture; Microsoft (they made the 360) established how online multiplayer was going to work, and even when a free option existed, the pay option remained more popular, partly because it was better quality.

I don't know if this situation will parallel the Kindle/iPad thing, but the similarities are worth noting.

Jon, I know you're salivating for the iPad, but I would caution you to wait. Early adopters always get screwed. No doubt the second iteration of the iPad will be far superior to the first one.
That's good advice, John, and if I had any sense I'd follow it.

No actually I've been saying the same thing. We'll see how the initial reviews look, and whether there's any likelihood of the price coming down. And yeah, no doubt the V2 will be cheaper and better.
It depends why prices were so low in the first place. If it's simply intended to outsell the competiton, that's one thing. But if it's unustainable predatory retailing that's designed to lock others out of the market, that's another story. In that scenario the retailer (like Amazon or WalMart) sells certain items at a loss to draw customers into the store, but also to destroy targeted competitors. In order to minimize their losses, they bully producers into lowering their prices, even if that means cutting quality. Then, when said competitors dry up and blow away, Amazon (or WalMart) raises prices on the contested item back to profitable levels and turns its sights elsewhere. What we have here is a situation in which Amazon's unsustainable loss-leader pricing has already created unrealistic price expectations for some consumers. But the way Amazon was going really was unustainable--the necessary next step would have been either for Amazon to raise prices (probably wouldn't happen, since they're trying to lock up the ebook market for the Kindle), or to go back to the publishers and demand yet another round of preferential discounts, and then another, and so on. Both publisher and author ultimately get bled dry in that scenario, obviously.
That's a good point. Still, I think $9.99 is too damn high for an ebook. I know I'm not the only one. Hell, even mass market paperbacks are cheaper than that, and they have to be printed, a new cover has to be designed, they have to be typeset anew, they have to be shipped and stored in a warehouse -- yet they are still cheaper than an ebook. For me, anything over $5 for an ebook is too much.
I actually agree with you on the price issue, John. $5-6 is about right, except maybe for current best-sellers and new releases, which should be around $10.

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