The Kindle Chronicles discussion

I know this was being discussed on last week's show but I'm absolutely noticing some big drops in price of books. I saw books that had been well above $11 that are below $9, some dropped well under $7 or $5. It's definitely caused a bit of a purchasing frenzy but I wanted to see if anyone else noticed it on their wish lists.

Hi, Loren,

I've noticed this as well. E-ReaderIQ is filling my inbox with lower price alerts on quite a few Kindle wishlist books. Strangely, while I snap up some books, others I decide not to pursue. The heat of the moment has passed and on occasion I even wonder why I put that particular book on my wishlist in the first place. :-)

I'm sad to realize price drips don't seem as common now. Instead, eBook prices are being held at ridiculously big levels by the Big Five publishers.

They are cutting off their nose to spite their face.

Or as a friend of mine said: “cutting of their face to spite the rest of us”.

Well said, Eolake!

I've pretty much decided to hold Amazon to the very old promise of "no ebook over $9.99." I realize this hasn't been true for years -- though it was when I got my Kindle 2 back when -- but I refuse to pay more than that. If the ebook is priced higher, I wait for a sale or I borrow from my library (great selection!) or I go without. Not easy, but my choice.

My policy is not to buy any trade book that isn't under $10. There is no lack of good books I haven't read.

I don’t think ebooks over a tenner is reasonable, but I don’t think Amazon promised exactly that, I think they promised something like “most bestsellers and new books are under 10 dollars”.
But they sadly lost the power to enforce that.

I agree about the too high ebook prices when compared to their paper counterparts. To that end I subscribe to Bookbub, Early Bird Books, Goodreads Deals, and the Kindle Daily Deals email alerts. I receive their email alerts daily. In addition, talking to my local librarian I found they use the library apps Overdrive, Libby (which is from Overdrive), Cloud Library and RBdigital. From Overdrive/Libby I get mostly ebooks. From Cloud Library I get ebooks but also a lot of audio books. From RBdigital I get audio books and magazines. What I find very interesting was that ebooks and or audio books that show up on one app do not show up an another app. It's as if each app manages different portions of the library's collections. (Special Note: Overdrive and RBdigital are available through the Amazon Appstore. Libby and Cloud Library are only available for Apple and Android devices. Second Special Note: I found a way to install the Google Play Store on my new Amazon Fire 10" tablet to get Libby and Cloud Library apps.) Finally I also take advantage of "EreaderIQ.com" I can create an alert list and set the price. When anything on my alert list reaches the specified price I get an email alert. Doing all of these things has saved be a great deal of money. Currently I have the audio versions of Darkest Hour by Anthony McCarten and Martin Luther by Eric Metaxas on the Cloud Library app.

I love audiobooks, they make my constitutional so much more enjoyable.

Like Ann, and except for a couple of rare cases, I refuse to purchase ebooks over $10. I take advantage of all the alert lists that I can. Unfortunately, my library doesn't support Libby yet, though participates in a local library consortium, through which I can borrow some Kindle books. Selection is somewhat limited, though. The new titles that I want are usually not available. My local library also doesn't have a great collection of paper books, either. Gee, you'd think I live in Siberia, but it's just Vermont. ;)

Antonia, if you have the ability to sign up with other library systems in Vermont they might have better collections. For instance I am signed up to check out books not just with our county library system but with another county next door as they have reciprocity. Another advantage of being able to sign up with other library systems is a Chrome browser library extension that permits you to use Amazon's Pbook and Ebook selection to identify which local libraries have specific books in their collection. The extension is called "Library Extension" and here is the URL online that will take you to it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/de...

Thanks, John. All the Vermont libraries are part of the Green Mountain Library Consortium, through which one can borrow ebooks. But new titles are often not available. I have recently found out, though, that (for a fee) I could join an out-of-state library, such as the Brooklyn Public Library or the Free Library of Philadelphia, which might provide a better selection of ebooks. I readily acknowledge that there's really no shortage of good books to read, and many classics are free. It's just that I'm often trying to find new releases.

In Minnesota our libraries are county based rather than statewide. So if you want to sign up with one or more county library systems you have to go on a journey. I agree with you about the greater challenge finding new releases in Ebook form. Hoping for the day when there is no difference and that for every Pbook there is a corresponding Ebook.