Recently I attended a poetry reading during which a poet with whom I am unfamiliar read their work. After the reading I requested that they send me a link to their book, which they duly did.
On clicking on the link I was surprised and somewhat annoyed to see that the Kindle edition retails at £6.2 whilst the paperback costs only £3.2. The book in question is traditionally published so I strongly suspect that the author has had no influence as regards the respective prices, and I in no way wish to criticise the poet, hence I am not naming them or the work in question. I do, however think that the fact that the Kindle is £3.2 more expensive than the paperback edition raises an issue worthy of discussion, namely how can a publisher justify pricing it’s Kindle books at a higher price than their print counterparts?
Many of my own books are available in both Kindle and paperback as I want to give my readers the opportunity to read my work in a format of their choice. On average the Kindle cost of one of my books is £2.99 whilst the print versions retail at between £5 and £5.25 which does, I believe take into account the extra cost of producing the print edition. I, personally would feel it wrong to charge more for the Kindle version of one of my books than it’s print counterpart.
Pricing Kindle titles higher than their print equivalents also has the unintended consequence of meaning that those who are unable to read print and rely on the text to speech facility on their Kindle app or Kindle reader to read books have to pay more for certain books than those who can read print. I am one such reader as I am registered blind and unable to read print.
I’ve come across this short video on Youtube which deals with this issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl9elMax1hM.
As always I’d be interested in the views of my readers.
K Morris - Poet 
Oh, very interesting news i hadn’t got notice about this before. That’s really an issue, and maybe Amazon counts on the text to speech availability. They have the information who buys the kindle version. Possibly they also can track the usage of the text-to-speech addition on their internal online reader? However, it’s not good to deminuish physically impaired costumers. 😉 Best wishes, Michael
Thanks for your comment, Michael. I don’t believe this is an Amazon issue as it is the author and/or the publisher who determines the price of books. So I think this is something that authors/publishers need to be cognisant of. Best wishes. Kevin
That’s also possible. Good, but now we know it. Thanks, Kevin! xx Michael
I watched the video with a great deal of interest. Cynic that I am, I’m not surprised at the role Amazon has played in pricing books to the detriment of authors and readers.
Thank you for commenting Liz. Whilst I am sure Amazon has played a role in this, I am of the view that the ultimate responsibility for pricing rests with the author and/or the publisher of a title. It is the author and/or the publisher who determines whether the Kindle version will be cheaper, the same or more expensive than the paperback or hardback equivalent.
In the specific example sighted by me, I decided not to buy the Kindle version of the book so the author and publisher has lost out on a sale.
Having said all that, it is interesting how we value books. A person will go out on the town and spend good money on drinks and fine dining whilst arguing that books should be free (if e-books) or more or less so.
I agree that the value of books has become greatly degraded as authors fight to get their titles noticed.
interesting
I’m glad you found my post interesting Beth. Thank you for commenting.