The Department of Justice’s ebook pricing settlement was approved last Thursday, and HarperCollins, one of the three settling publishers, has already entered into new contracts with ebook retailers. The retailers can now set their own prices on HarperCollins titles. So what kinds of changes are we seeing? A roundup of select titles (the prices are correct as of Tuesday morning, but are subject to change):
| Title | Author | Pub Date | Ebook List Price | Amazon Kindle | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Sony | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Cutting Season | Attica Locke | 9/18/2012 | $ 14.99 | $ 12.99 | $ 14.99 | $ 14.99 | $ 10.94 | n/a |
| Telegraph Avenue | Michael Chabon | 9/15/2012 | $ 17.99 | $ 9.99 | $ 12.59 | $ 17.99 | $ 12.99 | $ 13.50 |
| The Rise of Nine | Pittacus Lore | 8/21/2012 | $ 11.99 | $ 7.99 | $ 8.39 | $ 9.59 | $ 9.59 | $ 10.20 |
| Judgment Call | J.A. Jance | 7/24/2012 | $ 14.99 | $ 10.94 | $ 10.94 | n/a | $ 10.94 | $ 12.00 |
| The Fallen Angel | Daniel Silva | 7/17/2012 | $ 17.99 | $ 9.99 | $ 12.59 | $ 17.99 | $ 13.13 | $ 13.50 |
| Bloodline | James Rollins | 6/26/2012 | $ 14.99 | $ 10.94 | $ 10.94 | $ 14.99 | $ 10.94 | $ 12.00 |
| The Shoemaker’s Wife | Adriana Trigiani | 4/3/2012 | $ 10.99 | $ 8.02 | $ 8.02 | $ 10.99 | $ 8.02 | $ 9.35 |
| State of Wonder | Ann Patchett | 6/7/2011 | $ 10.99 | $ 9.78 | $ 9.78 | $ 10.99 | $ 9.78 | $ 9.35 |
| Family Affair | Debbie Macomber | 1/4/2011 | $ 5.99 | $ 5.69 | $ 5.69 | n/a | $ 5.69 | $ 5.99 |
| The Happiness Project | Gretchen Rubin | 12/29/2009 | $ 11.99 | $ 3.99 | $ 3.99 | $ 3.99 | $ 9.78 | $ 9.35 |
| Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man | Steve Harvey | 1/27/2009 | $ 9.99 | $ 7.29 | $ 7.29 | $ 9.99 | $ 7.29 | $ 9.99 |
| The Art of Racing in the Rain | Garth Stein | 5/13/2008 | $ 10.99 | $ 9.68 | $ 9.68 | $ 10.99 | $ 9.78 | $ 9.35 |
A couple notes:
- Amazon doesn’t show the ebooks’ list prices. I had to go to Barnes & Noble for those. I obviously haven’t looked at HarperCollins’ entire list, but you can see that in some cases it’s raised ebooks’ list prices. For example, Michael Chabon’s upcoming Telegraph Avenue, which would have been priced at $ 12.99 or $ 14.99 under agency, has a list price of $ 17.99 in the new world.
- Not surprisingly, Amazon is offering the lowest prices. Based just on the titles above, the average price on Amazon Kindle was $ 8.94; on Barnes & Noble Nook, $ 9.57; on Google Play, $ 9.91; on Sony (SNE), $ 10.42; on Kobo, $ 12.25.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock / Thomas Bethge
