It was the best of weeks, it was the worst of weeks……. and no one knew which.
This was, quite simply, a massively huge week in the publishing industry. All of the various pressures on the industry seemingly came to a head: the steady rise of e-books, downward pressure on book prices (due to bad economy/presence of e-books/competition with free content/used books/inevitability), the rising clout of e-tailers, an increasingly difficult landscape for independent bookstores, and the industry’s creeping dependence on a small handful of mega-bestselling authors.
First, several new e-readers are giving the Kindle a run for its money in both its functionality… and its bizarre name. Meet the Alex (yes, THE ALEX), the Que (yes, THE QUE) and the Nook (yes, THE okay that one doesn’t bother me so much). Also: I call dibs on ¿Qué? jokes for the next five years.
The Nook is perhaps the most notable of all as it is backed by Barnes & Noble, features wireless that you can use in a physical B&N to read/preview basically anything, and also allows you to “share” a book with a friend for 14 days, during which you can’t actually read it. Kind of like a real book.
It remains to be seen how popular all of these devices will be, but certainly e-book adoption is moving ever closer to the mainstream.
Meanwhile, WalMart dropped a megaton bomb more faster than you blink and sparked a ruthless price war with Amazon by announcing that they would sell 10 hotly anticipated titles for $9.99 through WalMart.com. Amazon quickly matched and announced same-day delivery in 7 cities, then WalMart countered by lowering the price to $8.99, which Amazon also matched. Then Target jumped in the fray, and so did Sears, who announced that if you by a $9 book from Amazon, Target or WalMart they will reimburse the entire amount if you buy something on Sears.com and spend $45. So, basically, you can get a free book when you buy your dog a pirate costume (come on, you know you want to click through to see that one).
Where does this end?
Where indeed.
Right now, even as WalMart, Amazon, Target and Sears fight it out for e-tailing primacy, publishers are still receiving the standard amount for every copy sold, or roughly 50% of the hardcover list price, meaning WalAmaTargEars are the ones taking a loss. So, assuming the deep discounts spur sales, in the short term this has turned into a huge cash cow for the few publishers/mega-bestsellers WalAmaTargEars have chosen.
But who loses? Well… potentially just about everyone else. In the words of literary agent David Gernert:
If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over. If you can buy Stephen King’s new novel or John Grisham’s ‘Ford County’ for $10, why would you buy a brilliant first novel for $25? I think we underestimate the effect to which extremely discounted best sellers take the consumer’s attention away from emerging writers.
And as Eric at Pimp My Novel notes, this could have huge impacts on independent bookstores, who simply can’t compete with the discounting. He also notes that if a few e-tailers cement their dominance over the bookselling market, they could have increasing clout to dictate terms and discounts.
There are some who are cautiously optimistic about the price war. An anonymous publishing executive told the Times: “If this is a short-term statement to let hundreds of millions of people know that they will be able to buy books from Walmart.com, it’s a good thing.”
But surely this isn’t temporary. These trends have been in the makings for years, from deep discounts (now something everyone takes for granted) to competition with other cheap media to the rise of e-books to the industry’s shedding of mid-list authors, their simultaneous aversion to small risks and dependence on big risks, and their increasing reliance on bestsellers, who they often overpay.
This doesn’t have to mean the end of publishing as we know it. As former editor Marion Maneker writes, this could spur publishers to reevaluate their deals with their top sellers, and he also notes that people are already accustomed to paying more for different products. Just because James Patterson’s latest is selling for $10 doesn’t mean someone won’t pay more for a book by someone who sells less.
But it looks as if book prices are coming down, one way or another. And that shift is going to send major shockwaves through the industry. Already Stephen King, an early e-book champion, announced that S&S will be delaying the release of the e-book edition of his new book, citing a desire to help bookstores, while simultaneously expressing concern that the deep print discounting “threatens the industry’s pricing structure.”
So is it the best of times or the worst of times? It’s too soon to know. Lower prices don’t have to be a bad thing provided people buy more books. Smaller authors don’t have to lose out provided consumers don’t flock en masse to the deeply discounted bestsellers.
But things are changing very, very quickly. The longtime trends that have been shaping the industry are only accelerating, and everyone in the business is holding on for the ride.
marla-
Brilliant!!
I can't remember ever spending more than $15 for a book. And that's for books I really want; usually I'm only willing to pay $5-10.
My thought process goes like this: (One Hand) Buy 1 brand new book that I really want OR (Other Hand) Buy 3-5 books that I've been meaning to read for a couple of years.
This is compounded by the knowledge that Brand New Book will become a Cheaper Book I've Been Meaning To Read in a year or two, and I'll have missed nothing.
I'll probably get hate mail for this, but paying $24.95 for a book is insane. That's a lot of dough for a couple days' worth of pleasure. I feel like we buy more books these days (as compared to depending upon the library growing up), and so we'd rather bulk up on the under $10 section of the world.
So the death of the hardback seems like a 'so what?" to me. Just print more paperbacks. The system will even itself out…won't it???
Nathan, you say "Right now, even as WalMart, Amazon, Target and Sears fight it out for e-tailing primacy, publishers are still receiving the standard amount for every copy sold, or roughly 50% of the hardcover list price, meaning WalAmaTargEars are the ones taking a loss."
What is it about book buyers in particular that these stores are willing to take such a loss just to get them into the store?
I like Rick's wine analogy – okay, maybe I just like wine, BUT if I get a great deal on a bottle (never $8.99 but we'll go with that), then I actually buy more expensive bottles to go along with it. I justify that I've saved money by finding a good deal and then spend more than I would have if I hadn't gotten the sale bottle. Also, I don't shop at Walmart – so there will still be people like me around feeding the book economy. I love buying books – and wine.
Nathan,
What's your bottom-line take on this in terms of how it will affect those of us who have finished our first novel (just this week)and are polishing that query letter to send out?
Should we continue? Will agents such as yourself continue to accept and/or read unsolicited query letters?
I'm not worried, mind you. I write because I must. But things HAVE gotten a bit cloudy of late.
Word verification: premi. As in "Is my concern premature?"
dana-
Most analysts I've read believe they're trying to use books as loss leaders so that people will buy other things. WalMart is trying to out-Amazon Amazon online, and so it made sense for them to go after their bread and butter. If WalMart, not Amazon, is perceived as having the cheapest books it cuts into Amazon's edge.
It's not so much about the books as it is about their broader businesses. That's also why some people are worried about them making so many inroads into the book market. As Eric at Pimp My Novel pointed out, books would have to compete with sofas, clothes, you name it for front-of-website treatment. Yet another challenge.
Sadly, even in New York City, bookstores have closed. Two of my favorite B&Ns closed a few months ago, and I'm still in shock. I've never found anything to read in Wal-Marts, except mass market paperbacks and some discounted hardcovers. The whole thing just makes me sad. Please buy all the e-books you want, but also try and keep your local bookstore in business.
Thanks, Terry.
I think Wal-Mart has earned a little satire. 🙂
A book is one item I select regardless of its price. If after I selected a book, I find a better price for it, I may go for that, but choosing a book based on its price…I don't think I have ever done that. Exciting new books, whatever their form or price may be, will for sure keep me!
I too am "holding on for the ride."
I learned a long time ago not to jump on the latest, newest, thing in technology.
"Wait for it" has become my mantra. And here is definitive proof; if you wait a few months, something new will happen. Something different, and at the very least, xomething more affordable.
Nothing new under the sun indeed.
……….dhole
Okay, as usual, the business side of things it abit beyond me.
Without really understanding it, I like with Susan Quinn said very much.
However, one part really stood out for me, as an author. And I do realize, of course, that this has definite effects on business – that it's scary for independent bookstores. I'm not trying to diminish that.
But here's what stood out for me.
On a $25 hardcover, the author makes $2.12.
On a 9.99 e-book, if the author gets 40%, which is what Amazon offers, after the 15% to the agent, the author gets $3.40.
I just find that really interesting.
Umm, you actually have to buy your dog the pirate costume AND the prisoner costume in order to get a free book. 🙂
Personally, I hate shopping online. I spend a lot more money when I go into a bookstory than I do online, because it takes too long to browse online. Online shopping for books is only good if I know what I want or if it's a special order, otherwise going into the bookstore is faster and more profitable for the retailer when it comes to my purchases. I walk into a bookstore to buy A paperback novel and I walk out with an armload of books that I couldn't leave in the store.
If the publishing business self-destructs, that will not mean the end of good stories, although they may or not still flourish in book form.
I expect to anger a lot of people here, most of whom write commercially or aspire to. I'll say this. If writing were no longer a way to make money, I think there would be fewer books (or stories) but better ones, because people would write from their heart, not their wallet.
The noveel I'm working on is from my heart. The main reason I expect to seek traditional publishing is that is the best way (at present) to reach a good audience. I will accept money if it comes, but that's not why I'm doing this.
I've also been checking into channels to publish work free on the web (e.g. blog novels) with an option for the reader to buy or donate. Some of the sites out there seem to be evolving toward providing a quality experience for the reader and a good prospective audience for the writer.
Let's see what happens.
-Steve
I'm going to stay anonymous because I don't want to get spammed for what I'm about to say.
I am a mom and hopeful writer, whose husband has been out of work a lot the past couple of years. He's in construction; I work part-time.
I don't buy books because I can't afford them. If they are not in the library, or someone doesn't loan me a copy, I don't get to read them. It means I miss a LOT. But what else can I do?
I am not thrilled about this whole Kindle thing… I don't want to read a book on a tiny screen the way Captain Picard read his Star Trek Enterprise mail. For one thing, staring at a computer screen for work is hard enough on the eyes.
And I can't afford a Kindle to begin with. And God forbid I drop it! Oh my word! I wouldn't be able to read any thing until it was repaired or replaced.
So what I'm saying is this… while I have been accused of being a hypocrite because I want to write but don't buy books, the simple truth is I can't afford them. Perhaps I'm old, but I think $5 is too much to pay for a gallon of milk, and $25 is too much to pay for a novel. That's 1/4 of $100 for something I will finish reading in about a day! I can take my whole family to the movies for that.
I don't expect to make money writing. I don't look at it for the income. I do it because I love it, and maybe I'll be able to earn a little side money eventually. I think of it as pizza money, basically. Or a car payment.
Not a living.
Not that our words aren't worth it, but that… it just ain't gonna happen, economically speaking. Only people who are wealthy (or childless) can afford the luxury of books.
At least, that's the way I see it.
No, wait a minute, it's been so long since I went to the movies that I've forgotten how expensive they are… unless we hit a second-run matinee, we can't even go to the movies for $25.
I guess that's why we don't go.
I planned a Dickens derivative in my new post, rethinking that.
I know that writers are by nature sensitive. But I think that the fear is not conducive to what they should be doing; getting on with being great and thinking of new ways to turn or go with the tide.
If anyone truly believes in their work and works to prove what they believe, they have nothing to worry about.
Thanks for throwing the horrid picture of the dog in the pirate costume in thee. I may have to gouge out my eyes. ^^
That said, I'm forwarding the link to my aunt, who will appreciate the horridness of it all. 😛
Thanks for your insight, Nathan! I almost bough a Kindle recently, and I'm glad I held off. The Nook looks… very exciting.
Kudos to Stephen King and waiting off.
The recent problem with our economy is going to affect the publishing industry, like any other, but will it be long-lasting? Will it be like the pirated music downloads or more reminiscent of the Dustbuster? Only time will tell. Will it kill my dream of becoming a published author? Maybe. Will it change the way I write or if I continue to write at all? No, because unlike most professions, being a writer isn’t contingent on your success or failure. If you are a writer, you write.
Steve, if you thought your comment was likely to anger a lot of people wanting to make a living as writers, this may result in waves of apocalyptic fury from everyone else.
Free writing "from the heart" is not necessarily "better." In fact, most of it is just bad, bad, bad. How many people here have suffered through an open-to-everyone writing workshop with no vetting for membership?
Yes, we can all hate on Dan Brown and J. K. Rowling, but these pop hacks are Steinbecks compared to the painfully confessional, over-artsified, or clumsily plagiaristic stuff that gets enthusiastically distributed for free by people writing solely for enjoyment.
"Oh, your weekly submission is a YA story about a teenage girl who slays vampires? Neat. I'll put it next to what seems to be a therapy session transcript and the … uh … four pages of color terms apparently intended to describe emotions."
The cold calculus of the marketplace can certainly be discouraging, distasteful to our artistic sensibilities, and even result in some uncomfortable outcomes (like megastar advances draining publishers' coffers) but the underlying reality is that for-profit professionals like agents, publishers, and booksellers constitute the only barrier between readers and really, really, REALLY bad writing.
I always find it interesting how people argue they don't believe e-books will ever replace the physical experience of book buying-beause that's how it works FOR THEM. But. What if it isn't about us? What if Big Business is looking forward to other potential, perhaps bigger, markets as well…
I look at my eleven yr old and his friends who've grown up with iPods and wii's and computers in the classroom and parents without landlines. I look at my teen and his friends with their smartphones and netbooks and anti-old ways attitudes. I look at my six yr old niece and her friends who've never seen a payphone and worry about their enviromental footprint. They're only ten, twenty yrs from adulthood and all that consumerism. And they LOVE their technology.
I have to think Big Business is looking at them too and thinking of the future…
Another perspective:
I have a note posted at my writing desk (mainly precipitated by the recession and my gargantuan freelancing tax tab) that reads, "BUY NO BOOKS." I've been borrowing from the library or buying cheap at yard sales all year.
You should know that when I saw the "10 hotly anticipated titles" link on your post, I clicked. I'd pay $10 or less for a book, and I'd feel good about it. I didn't know I was killing publishing as we know it.
Are there enough of me to mediate the impact?
If I need a doggie vampire suit, I have one-stop shopping? Nice.
The Qui?… This is not good. I'll let you have the jokes, that's just bad…
🙂 Smile it's Friday!
Okay, I'm still trying to understand this. I re-read Nathan's post. So, the big thing about this is pricing for books will come down…..
Hmmmm……
The positive is that means books may reach more readers, and readership could go up in general.
The negative is the bottom line for publishers and independent bookstores, and possibly regular bookstores, may suffer.
Although if readership increases, it might not.
Either way, this will probably strengthen e-publishing.
So, we'll just have to wait and see what happens and how this affects things.
But authors – e-publishing is our future, from my perspective. E-publishing gives us greater profit, more control and ease of access. So, most likely, this will be a good thing for authors, not a bad one.
I think.
I'm bemused by the whole brouhaha of e-books and publishers fearing the deep discounts of retailers. What is stopping publishers from selling their own e-books? The science fiction/fantasy publisher Baen Books (www.baen.com) does exactly that.
In addition to distributing their own e-books (https://www.webscription.net/default.aspx) They sell them in multiple formats so every reader on the market is served. Plus the books are DRM free so the purchaser of the book is able to transfer it to any other device when the first one dies or becomes obsolete or gets replaced with better technology.
Their customers are loyal and pirates more or less leave them alone. Part of that is due to Baen's Free Library of E-books. Most of these are the early books in a series so readers can decide if they want to invest the money, time and emotion into a multi-book series.
Sounds like a pirate friendly place, that looses money hand over fist, doesn't it? According to Toni Weiskopf, pirates looking for pirated Baen books are directed to the publisher for the book in question. Baen Books takes the view that few pirated e-books floating around the web are a form of advertising. It also happens to be true. Every author in the Free Library has a back list that keeps selling in dead-tree versions.
I think as readers and writers we all need to speak up. See, WE read blogs and know what happens from rock-bottom pricing. Realistically, starving artist actually starve (along with everyone else in the food chain). But when I tell this to an avid reader–I mean a purely recreational reader–they're shocked. People hear you've written a book and say, "geez, why do you still work"? Um, it's all about lights, heat, and power, friends. I advocate affordability, but only when it's necessitated. If you can spend $5+ on a coffee, you can spend $20 on a book. Period. I don't support resale, borrowing, or libraries because I have the $20 (from my day job). I also tend toward the up-and-coming instead of the already on top. Like everyone, I evaluate my book purchases but I feel a certain sense of charity when I pick up the new Joe Schreiber instead of say a Stephen King. Just my two cents. Take a stand and people will follow–if only a few.
When do you see the average sales for a commercially-published e-book hitting in the thousands per quarter? My agent suggested that as a possible alternative for a book of mine that isn't selling to print publishers, but I'd rather have sales in the thousands than in the hundreds.
I'm excited about the Nook, but I still won't get an e-reader until I know for sure the books I buy will remain mine, even if the authentication servers go down and the company goes out of business.
What's an independent bookstore? I dimly remember something like that. Didn't they all become used bookstores already?
I just have to say: I LOVE bookstores. I love them. It's an entire experience. Something akin to going to the movies in my mind. A place you can get lost in potential adventures. Get away from everything for awhile. Even the vibe in the air is different. Deep chairs to peruse. Then you scuttle away like a pirate with your "booty"; a handful of treasure just waiting to be unleashed.
As far as cheap prices, well, I tell ya's, maybe it will be alright for midlist because folks will be more prone to buy that extra unheard of author with some of the extra money..?
Basically, I think everything is gonna be alright. Don't get your panties in a bunch. Write that story. Sing your song. The money will come.
Everything must change some time. It's inevitable. With the book industry it has been an unusually long time coming. With the growing dependence on everything technologic it only makes sense that books will lean that way too. But like the movie theatre there will still be a niche for printed books.
The way I see it there are three ways to meet that change.
1. Fight it. Stomp your feet, shake your fists at fate, sulk, mope, and blame somebody, but do your best to avoid it.
2. Ignore it. Pretend it isn't happening and go on as usual until that path comes to a dead end.
3. Embrace it. Live with it, deal with it, and change with it. Try to make it work to your advantage.
I'm going with three. I don't expect to be the next Stephen King or Dan Brown. I'm not writing to be rich and famous. I write because I love to, it makes me feel more alive than anything else. Making a partial living off it would just be a plus.
Even if my only option turned out to be self publishing on ebooks, I would still write. Maybe I'll even be able to pay the phone bill off it.
First, thanks for the link to the dog pirate costume – I plan to buy one and I don't even have a dog 🙂
Second, I would challenge all writers, published, not or in between to find a book this weekend and purchase it at full price. Yes you heard me full price. Support an author. Oh and spend some time searching – really look for that gem which WalAmaTargEars doesn't deem a bestseller (aka a pure breed) and find a "mutt." Mutts often make the best reads!
Hmmm. I, for one, have no desire to read an e-book, no matter how adorable "the" device is, because ebooks make my eyes go blurry, and I also am bored by Walmart's list of cheap books. That's not to say that I doubt that the publishing industry is in for some changes. However, as Marshall McLuhan says, the media itself speaks a message. Warm, smooth, papery codexes aren't done speaking.
Gotta agree with J.Nelson Leith on that one.
People romanticize "writing from the heart" like it's some kind of mystical experience. It's not – it's a rough draft. You write out the book the way you want it, but the way you want it isn't necessarily the way readers want to read it.
Most of the slush that never gets published is "from the heart", as is most of what's run through author mills. But the ones who've written it see it as their "vision" and don't want to hear that there's anything wrong with their baby.
Write from your heart; edit from your head.
Well, let's say ebooks do make print books extinct. I don't think they will, but let's say they do, or they get to the point where it is print books that are rarer buys than ebooks. Anyway, my question is, if that happened, what would stop the publishers from just selling directly to the public and forgoing the expense of bookstores?
Just an odd question I came up with as I read this post.
Jodi
welcome to the music world. When itunes made one song worth only $1 it ruined the music business. If you by only one song from an album it should atleast be worth $5 or more. If you buy the album you should get a deal– but a record only being worth about $10 is the same as a book being worth $10– really the same amount has probably gone into making both.
Get ready for the big one– you have just begun to see the ride wait until your industry gets a huge hit like the record business.
"Write from your heart; edit from your head." Josin L. McQuein
I love this! Get your heart into that first draft, and then polish/edit/revise so that what your heart meant to say shines forth.
And your paragraph shows that brilliance, JLM!
First, thanks Josin. You actually expanded on what I was saying, but I agree with where you took it.
Also, in response to several comments above: Why do we have to diminish the legitimate complaints and concerns people have as if they are simply throwing tantrums, being "glass half empty" pessimists, or afraid of change? This is not an honest or rational way of engaging with a serious issue.
This is particularly true of the cross-market gamesmanship of Wal-Mart, which is not simply a technical innovation that can be adapted to. If super-actors who are effectively insulated from free-market accountability through diversification can undercut the profitability of one market in order to profit in others, this poses a very real existential threat to the parasitized market.
No dedicated bookseller, large or small (never mind independents) can survive if a cross-market actor consistently sells under cost. It essentially transforms books into a marketing tool for selling Wal-Mart/Target clothes, soda, and dishwashing liquid.
All the happy thoughts in the world won't save a sabotaged market: only carefully considered anti-trust measures designed to foster genuine, itemized competition.
Why do ebooks cost so much. I recently looked up the price of the current book I'm reading. Same price as the paperback. Call me old fashioned but I'd rather be holding a paperback for the same price. I know it's the future, but I'm not about to pay the same money to beam down some 1s and 0s to my reader as I'd pay for a good old fashioned book.
J. Nelson Leith,
I couldn’t agree with you more! I don’t think it’s pessismistic to look reality square in the face. That’s the only way to deal with it and make effective changes. Reality is what it is: the good, the bad and the ugly. Sometimes it’s more ugly than at other times, but you can’t succeed unless you look at it without flinching.
When this conversation started yesterday, I checked two Forbes lists for 2009: richest billionaires in the world and richest Americans. The Walmart heirs actually fill the spots for 11th, 12th, 13th AND 14th top billionaires in the world, as well as the 4th, 5th, 6th AND 7th richest Americans. If they want to corner the market on books, they have the money to accomplish it.
To Anon 2:43 AM
I'm with you all the way. I borrow books, or get them from the Library.
Some people cannot afford a $25.00 book, and from the $25.00 to $30.00books I've read from the Library, they just weren't worth it.
Those inflated prices are there to pay all the middle people involved and keep the big names big. Some of us just can't afford to support that.
So be as judgemental as you want for those of us who don't buy books, but not everyone has that extra cash to fill agents, publishers, authors, distributors pockets with those over inflated prices.
Good for Walmart and others who are making it affordable.
Wal Mart is evil. I strongly recommend you read the above Pulitzer Prize winning series by the Los Angeles Times. It tells you everything you need (or feared) to know about the real cost of "low prices."
Nathan,
I work at a Barnes and Noble and I had to laugh at your "THE" Alex, "THE" Que and "THE" Nook and that you didn't have a problem with "THE" Nook. The reason I thought it was hilarious was because our managers and everyone else at BN is having fits about us calling it "THE" Nook. According to them it is not a noun but a "lifestyle". I pause for laughter 🙂 So as you are emphasizing the "THE" with the Nook, we are constantly being reminded that it is just "Nook". And the jokes about Que? What about the Nookie jokes? 🙂 Thanks for your great blog!
J Nelson – I understand your concern. I have seen free books that are pretty unreadable. But I was talking about something other than just technical proficiency. People wruiting for money will write what they think will sell. People writing from their heart will write what they care about. In the long run, I think the things people care about are the things most worth reading about.
An outstanding example of this is the book "In His Steps" by Charles Sheldon. This is a classic of Christian literature. It is reputedly the number 2 all-time Christian best seller after the Bible. Sales estimates range from 8 million to 30 million. It is credited with popularizing, if not inventing the phrase "What Would Jesus Do". Sheldon cared so little for commercialism that he failed to register copyright and the book was picked up by several publishers who published it on their own and gave him nothing.
Some have said that the quality of the writing is poor by literary standards, I wouldn't know. I found it on a free site the other nuight and read several chapters. It is compelling.
Live Like Him!
-Steve
As an emerging author the situation feels quite drastic.
I can go into a local store and purchase a book by a well-known author for less than I can get my own discounted books from my own publisher.
How can we compete. No one wants to buy an 'unknown' when a 'big' author is so cheap. At this rate there will soon be no new books. The market will close down
Walmart has such a piss-poor selection of books, who ever considers going there for that anyway? Okay, so maybe they get the price of the most ridiculously over-priced books to come down, that's not going to do anything to the rest of the market. As long as "bookstore" is synonymous with "books", you don't have to worry about Walmart. AMazon, otoh… I don't do business with them, but that's mostly because I prefer to physically browse a book before I decide to buy it.
Re: Nooks – I find it absolutely hysterical that a book reader would be called "The Nook." Because according to Dr. Seuss, Nooks can't read.
"We took a look.
We saw a Nook.
On his head he had a hook.
On his hook he had a book.
On his book was "How to Cook.
…
But a Nook can't read, so a Nook can't cook.
So what good to a Nook is a hook cook book?"
– One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Was that a GZA reference I heard?
michael-
Glad someone caught it!
Will different retailers start to feature alternate "special bonuses?" Buy it on Amazon and get it bundled with the soundtrack the author claims to have listened to while writing. Or get it and Target and get a bonus DVD interview with the Author…. just a thought. Its already happening with so many other releases.
I am curious as to why Walmart hasn't instead chosen to lower the price on music CDs. Many industry experts have commented that music prices are simply too high and that CD prices must be lowered to compete with illegal downloading. Amazon occasionally sells mp3s for $3.99 an album, and this greatly increases sales. Seems like Walmart exerting downward pressure could be a good thing in the case of music, where the execs are simply too paralyzed to make a big change.