Dear Random House,
Thank you for your e-mail advising me of
your book sale – UP TO 30% OFF - at your website http://www.rbooks.co.uk/.
I was intrigued to learn that the price of Robert
Harris’ latest hardback book, The Fear Index, is £18.99 – reduced to £13.20
with the discount, and that the paperback price is £12.99 reduced to £9.09. But
please tell me: how do you justify the e-book price, a whopping £19.81 – reduced to £13.86 with the discount? Further,
your website informs me that it is available in one format – epub – and that
this is not compatible with mobile devices such as iPhone, iTouch, iPad and
Google's Android.
 |
| A scary price for an e-book - plus lies! |
Are your marketing department people dim, incompetent
or intentionally misleading the public in order to slow or stop the onslaught of
e-books? First you price the electronic version higher than both the paper
editions, then you tell people it is not compatible with their devices!
The native format for iBooks (used on
iPhone/iPad/iPod) is actually epub .
E-book fans can download readers for Android that will take just about any
format (there may be limitations on some).
Incidentally, customers can buy the epub
version from Kobo for £6.99, and for
Kindle at £5.59.
And you wonder why the publishing industry is in such a dire condition!
Kindest regards,
Kevin Bennett
Note: I have e-mailed Random House a copy of this post.
ReplyDeleteGood for you Kevin... 'Tis the season for madness.... Oops no thats the summer hols. Perhaps too much mulled wine at Random?
ReplyDeleteI honestly think that major publishers are trying to suppress e-books. Many are more expensive than their paperback cousins.
ReplyDeleteProbably it's about protecting their industry, but things change. With their thinking we'd still have kids climbing up chimneys!
And still they haven't replied, and still they advertise it at £19.81!
ReplyDelete