Greedy Book Publishers

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Greed may be good for publishers, but definitely not for readers!

Case in point:

This weekend, the New York Times web site has an interesting review of the paperback version of a great book...

Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace 

Dominic Lieven

It seemed like something that might really interest me, so I dropped into the Amazon web site to see the price of a Kindle copy.

Boy, was I ever shocked!

It seems the publisher, Viking, now sets the price... no deviation allowed! How this anti-competitive scheme is allowed to persist is beyond me, but the pricing was both shocking and way over the top!

Here it is...

Hardcover - $14.38

Paperback - $12.94

Kindle - $19.99

I love my Kindle... but I certainly won't pay any price like that! A Kindle edition of any book has all the words, but lacks color... and the illustrations are atrocious. If anything, a Kindle edition should sell at a DISCOUNT to other formats. But that's not how the greedy folks at Viking think! So... instead of a sale, they made a library borrower out of me. Net result... marginal revenue, at least from this reader, is absolutely nothing. Great work, Viking executives! Pay yourself a bonus, why don't you boys, for inspired thinking!

Count me as one reader who will gladly go to my local library instead.

Consider it my personal protest of continuing corporate greed.











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