Aleph – Paulo Coelho
A couple of months ago Paul Coelho sent shock waves through the publishing world when he made his entire back catalogue (excluding The Alchemist) available for download at 99 cents per e-book.
Within days, downloads of his books had increased by 4,000%, more than recouping any so-called loss in revenue.
The list did not include Aleph as that was a published through a different publisher. That oversight has now been rectified and Aleph is now available for download at 99 cents for an unknown limited period.
The price of e-books is an obscenity. The costs involved are virtually zero. The author delivers the manuscript in electronic format, robots convert to the appropriate download format, the cost of the platforms have been written off long ago.
Contrast with a physical book which has very real associated costs of printing, distribution, warehousing and retailing.
For e-books the normal economics of supply and demand do not apply. We have an infinite store. No matter how many e-books are sold (downloaded) the store is never empty, more copies are available to sold.
The offer is restricted to US only.
It is time publishers in UK and Europe got their act together and stopped ripping off readers. This will only happen when readers put pressure on them and demand e-books at 99 pence and 99 cents.
Tags: Aleph, books, e-books, Paulo Coelho
Keithpp's Blog 
July 27, 2012 at 12:03 pm |
Reblogged this on Bright Light Warrior Nika.