Dear Amazon,
As an avid reader and buyer of books, almost always from Amazon, I have been paying much of my limited attention to your Kindle e-reader. I find myself enthralled with the prospect of having many books right at my fingertips no matter my location. Your wireless capabilities and note-taking features are icing on the cake. I just have one really big problem. You’ve completely, utterly, and irrevocably screwed up the pricing model.

I just priced Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire and noticed that the hardcover edition shipped to me in two days is $10.50, while the Kindle edition is $8.40 and would be here within the minute. Am I to believe that printing, binding, and shipping a hardcover book only costs $2.10? Surely, the fixed costs of the hardcover edition are much higher than that. I understand that there are server costs, power costs, development costs, maintenance costs, and the like, but these are incremental costs when it comes down to an individual Kindle book. This makes me wonder what the algorithm is behind the Kindle pricing. Then, I realize it doesn’t matter.

I want a physical copy of the book. I’m just that sort of reader/collector that I need to have a tactile experience. However, if I were given the choice of paying the $10.50 for the hardcover version of Larsson’s novel and adding an additional $3.00 to receive a Kindle version immediately, I’d pay that extra $3.00 for every book I buy. Every single one. So, now, you’ve turned me into a profit center, where before, I’m not even going to contemplate the Kindle edition.

What about those folks who don’t want the printed version? Let them pay a little more. $8.40 seems high but something in the 30-40% of the current hardcover cost seems like a great compromise. That way, they pay a little less than the current price, but pay more than those of us from whom you’re making money on by way of the print editions.

This model has been working in the technology book space for quite some time. You can often buy a PDF of the book for something like 50% of the printed edition price. If you buy them together, you get a break on the digital and printed price points. The Pragmatic Bookshelf has built their entire business on this successful model.

So, please consider the “buy it in print and get a digital version” style of pricing for all of your Kindle editions. Please don’t bother me with whining about licensing. You’re the largest bookseller in the world. Why would you even listen to someone trying to talk to you about licensing? This new pricing model would instantly make me a Kindle buyer and devotee.

Sincerely,
Alex Ezell