ebook prices

[juj1n]

I too, am very concerned and turned off by ebook prices on the BN store.  I did a random sample of ebooks and here is what I found.

Gates of Fire
Kindle: $6.39
Nook: $7.99

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $14.99

Sookie Stackhouse Set
Kindle: $29.90
Nook: $51.13

Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $20.80

Kite Runner
Kindle: $9.51
Nook: $11.20

The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $9.99

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives 
Kindle: $9.99
Nook: $12.00

As you can see the nook never does better than the kindle, the best it can do is match the price (which is completely acceptable)  The gap in prices range from 1- ~10 dollars and on the set it's around 20 dollars!!  If the main selling point is the device I see the potential kindle 3 matching many of the nook features but still having the better ebook prices...  I'm extremely tempted to cancel my preorder and just buy a kindle...  there's just a small part of me hoping they'll change prices but it's probably not likely.  

[penname12]

If B&N does not rectify this within the next few weeks -  I may hold off until Kindle 3.

[juj1n]

I was merely saying Kindle 3 in a theoretical sense to imply that hardware gets outdated quickly and if the nook's main selling point is the device, in a year or so there will probably be many imitators (kindle 3 for example) that will have a lot of the same features.  Ebooks are about the reading experience more than the physical device so in that sense the ebook prices are the most important thing.  The nook is a nice device but with high prices like this it is less marketable, especially in this economy.  

You'd probably be better off buying a kindle 2 and upgrading when/if the kindle 3 comes out.  If you were to wait for the kindle 3 you'd probably be waiting at least a year, probably more and there's a possibility it never be produced.  Amazon doesn't do yearly updates of their devices like Apple does so it's hard to tell when or if it will ever come out.

[matts1050]

I jumped on the Nook bandwagon and ordered it yesterday but now looking at the price differences between Amazon and B&N  for books I will consider canceling my order and go back to ordering the Kindle. Hopefully B&N will see the light before launching the Nook and bring those prices closer to Amazons.

[juj1n]

Sadly I just cancelled my nook ore order...  

I won't order the kindle just yet to see if BN does in fact lower their prices.  If not I guess it's kindle all the way, plus the kindle is all international now.

[hudsonb]

Yeah I will be cancelling my Nook pre-order soon to if B&N doesn't lower their e-book prices, each comparison I have done shows B&N being up to 50% more than Amazon.

In some cases B&N eBooks are more than the actual paperback, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson is $9.99 on B&N eBook, the paperback is $7.99, on Amazon the eBook is $7.99... $3 more at B&N???

[Nenarek]

I too am concerned about book prices.  I have a nook on preorder but I will decide in the next month or so whether or not to cancel it.

Since nearly all of the information about the nook hardware was leaked early I was really hoping to hear about some big content deals at the press conference. 

I really like what I have seen about the nook hardware and software but if the content isn't there it isn't much good.

Having fewer books than your biggest competitor at higher prices isn't going to help sales.

[darrenAZ]

I also pre-ordered the Nook the day it was announced (actually, an hour before it was announced!) and will probably cancel the order due to the prices of the ebooks as well as the sharing. It seems that a book can only be shared 1 time - that is it. What good is that. My wife takes longer than 14 days to read a book. It took her 2 months just to finish Brisingr! What seemed so great about this device is starting to lose its appeal.

[penname12]

Everybody should hold off on their Nook purchase. Lets stick together on this and make sure B&N remains competitive on their ebook pricing in line with Amazon. I know how stingy B&N is. I will wait for Kindle 3 if B&N does not act on this soon. Amazon is already responding to the Nook war by adding reading books on PC.....

[DavidGC]

I will be buying either the Kindle or the Nook between now and Christmas.

I don't mind paying $9.99 for a book that is only out in hard cover (or, higher-priced trade paperback), but once the paperback of a bestseller comes out, the ebook price should drop and be significantly lower than  the paperback price.

I need to see more titles -- lots more -- and better ebook prices from B&N or I will be buying the Kindle.

DGC

[LeilaniLad]

The Nook prices are comparable to what Amazon charges, but the library is more than three times the size.

Also, note the 500,000+ FREE titles on the Nook.

I am leaning towards the nook on the title availability myself.

[CWilliam09]

This is my main selling point. The ebooks are so ridiculously expensive when compared to the prices Amazon puts up. I don't want to buy the nook (which is reasonably priced for all that it offers) only to drop money into the proverbial money sink on B&N's ebook store.

[Daithi]

I too think I am going to cancel by Nook purchase. The price difference between B&N and Amazon just isn't competitive. There are a lot of things I like about the Nook -- SD Card, user replaceable battery, user generated screen savers (all features on the Kindle 1 but not subsequent Kindles -- stupid Amazon).

I like the concept of the LendMe feature. However, their FAQ says you can only lend a book ONCE. On the Nook blog I asked if you could relend the book to someone else once the 14 day lending period expired, and the moderator said, you can only lend the book one time. If this is actually true then this feature is pretty much useless. I've reasked the question here, but so far they haven't answered it.

I really like that the Nook supports ePub, but I'm not willing to pay higher prices for ePub.

I'm also disappointed that they didn't support folders or tags. Maybe next year I'll look at Barnes & Noble again.

[LabRatSB]

I'm with you guys.  I had wanted a Kindle for my December bday until I heard about the Nook.  However, now I'm leaning back to the Kindle b/c B&N's ebook prices are absurd.  I love B&N, but with as much as I read, I'd be averaging $40 more a year in ebooks over what I'd pay for ebooks with the Kindle. 

I also agree that the lending feature isn't so great now that I've heard the details on it.  The Nook is losing is selling point with me.

[penname12]

The lendme feature is a sham IMO. You can only lend certain books. (They will have the lendme logo on the book cover).

[matts1050]

Yeah, it's all kind of a let down now that I did more research on costs. I guess we'll just have to wait a bit and give B&N a chance to respond to this. I see that the admins are avoiding this subject.

[Xyxox]

I've wanted to get an eReader for a while. Saw the Kindle and didn't much like the look or the storage limitatioins. Saw the Nook and loved the fact that I could add 16GB of storage easily.

But looking at the price differences, if something doesn't change by launch I'll be buying a Kindle 2 on the launch date of Nook.

[Nenarek]

I think that there will definitely be some kind of action in the ebook store before the nook launch.

They probably need to update the reader software on other client devices to support syncing furthest page read, annotations and other features.

I believe that I read somewhere that they are converting to epub downloads with the launch of the nook as well.  That will be a major change for the store and maybe more content and better pricing will come along with that change.

[LabRatSB]

Having never purchase an ebook from B&N, do you have to pay sales tax on them as well?  If so, that's another strike against the Nook.  No tax with amazon.