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Amazon’s Kindle Pricey but Better

Here is a look at the latest version of Kindle.

Amazon has its second electronic book out and it is selling. Why should you be interested?  The college textbook companies would like to eliminate the bookstore. After the publisher sells the book once, there is no more chance to make money on the used book unless a new edition comes out. So the Garrison cost book is not is its fourth edition in ten years. 
Right now if you buy an on line book there is of course no selling it back to anyone.  And the prices are still too close to the paper version.   The book publishers tell me that Amazon is stuck on their high price which prevents the logical thing from happening. The logical thing is rather like the old razor analogy, sell the razor cheap and make the money on the blades, perhaps the ink jet printer analogy would be better these days.  The book companies are tending to make the electronic book for a laptop since so many folks now have laptops and the price is down so much. 

My sources tell me the latest ploy is for the book publisher to attempt a deal with the college administration possibly eliminating other publishers on a campus.  Leasing books is another reality cheaper for students and it eliminates the dreaded bookstore used book cycle for the publisher. 

The drama continues, stay tuned. 
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4 responses to “Amazon’s Kindle Pricey but Better”

  1. Laura Alonzo Avatar
    Laura Alonzo

    As I see it soon very soon we will be paperless, bookless, and jobless. What is going to happen to all those jobs that produce the books? Yes technology is taken over, but it is creating it’s own recession. Not everyone can adapt to computer technology.

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  2. Dennis Elam Avatar
    Dennis Elam

    Good question, what is going on here is an attempt by book companies to increase their contribution margin which is sales minus variable cost.Decreasing the cost of paper and printing indeed saves some trees. I don’t think printing jobs are going away but understand that modern printing techniques have eliminated most of the labor involved. A side feature of computerized printing is that finally low cost small volume jobs are realistic. I just had a small photo book done for a friend, twenty pages for a mere ten bucks, such a deal, and they loved it!
    IBM used to say machines should work people should think. Ever been in a newspaper print plant? It ruined my Grandad’s hearing and to me was an incredibly boring job.
    Indeed the ability to print in small volumes as well as on line opens up the prospect of budding authors getting a chance, my blog would not be possible in the ‘old’ publishing world. I have corresponded with several students in the last hour right here from my apartment. Handy.

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  3. Jamie Avatar
    Jamie

    Years ago my dad worked @ the San Antonio Light (it’s gone….) as a pressman. Spending time in the pressroom was amazing to me, watching the HUGE paper rolls become a newspaper. I don’t personally care for “e-books”, still an old school like to highlight the paragraph kinda girl. Technology is great, but there is nothing like falling asleep while reading an accounting book……hehe

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  4. Felix Duque Avatar
    Felix Duque

    I read also this article that has some information about the e-books, they believe that it would take longer to be adapted, since there is a lot of older people that are used to the traditional books.
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100584020
    I believe that they are going to loose money, just like the music industry, that once they went into electronic form, anyone had access to them, same thing will happen to the books. Everyone is going to be able to download them.
    I would also like to make a comment about Laura’s comment. I know that not everybody can adapt that easy to new technology, but I believe that is just a matter of being shown how to use all of these technology tools.

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