The $9.99 selling point on Kindle thwarts publishers

Sourcebooks Inc., an independent publisher based in Naperville, decides to postpone pushing its new book “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse”, a young-readers in the vein of Harry Potter to Kindle, concerning the relatively low selling price of $9.99 or even less. “It doesn’t make sense for a new book to be valued at $9.99.” said Dominique Raccah, CEO of Sourcebooks. Normally the hardcover novels are sold at $25 to $27. The ebook version of “Bran Hambric” will be landed on Kindle or other ebook readers about half a year later after the paperback, that is in January 2009.

The CEO of Sourcebook is obviously not the only one who doesn’t really understand for the ebook business. Another New York Time best selling title is absent on Kindle: Catherine Coulter’s novel “Knockout”. Robert Gottlieb, chairman of Trident Media Group LLC and Ms. Coulter’s literary agent said that he does not allow any of his author’s books to appear as an ebook. “It’s no different than releasing a DVD on the same day that a new movie is released in the movie theaters. Why would you do that?” he said. But he seems to forget that he is the only adamant publisher that refuses to accept ebook format on the best selling chart. Moreover, the analogy of comparing the paperback edition with new movie release in movie theaters is ridiculous. He definitely thinks that reading on Kindle is a far more inferior experience than feeling the real paper.