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Even with the unveiling of Sony’s more recession-friendly Pocket Edition Reader, which comes attached to a price tag of $199 USD, electronic book devices remain a substantial investment largely unable to convince book lovers to make the leap from traditional print to digital E Ink.
Maud\'s Generic Chicken Drumstick ebook device was no match for the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader. Image: aprilskiver/Flickr.
However, with Google already providing more than one million public-domain titles, it would appear that offering device holders access to further free content is a worthwhile approach that could drum up significant exposure for the emerging electronic book reader market.
And that appeal certainly looks to be taking hold considering that the recent top three performers for Amazon’s Kindle book reader were listed as James Patterson’s ‘The Angel Experiment’, Joseph Finder’s ‘Paranoia’, and ‘The Briar King’ by Greg Keyes. All three titles are available with an accompanying price tag of $0.00 USD.
“I like the notion of introducing people to one book, while promoting the sales of another,” said Patterson regarding the current attention being garnered by ‘The Angel Experiment’, which is the first book of his ‘Maximum Ride’ series for young adults.
“Maximum Ride is big already and we think it could be bigger,” added the novelist. “That requires getting people to read it.”
Publishers tempting consumers with free books, usually the first title in an established series by a prominent author, is clearly a ‘carrot and donkey’ marketing ploy designed to grab the customer and connect them to a new platform and delivery system they hope will create a sustained revenue flow further down the line.
Compounding the worth of that methodology in an Associated Press report, Scott Shannon of Random House’s Del Rey/Spectra revealed that sales of Naomi Novik’s popular fantasy series ‘Temeraire’ had increased by more than 1,000 percent after the opening book had been presented for free download.
The current ebook price point adopted by Sony and Amazon for new releases and best sellers on their respective devices stands at $9.99 USD.
The Tech Herald: Sony Pocket Edition Reader turns up the heat on Kindle
The Tech Herald: Amazon slashes Kindle price to $299
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