Everything iPad

We’re beginning to think that we should begin to take tabs on these eBook Wars articles, for the simple fact that there’s so many different avenues this could (and has) go down, we realize it might be hard to keep track of everything. This probably won’t make it any easier. While the big hub-bub over the last few weeks has been a mix of Apple’s agency model, and the subsequent pricing differentiation between the iPad and Amazon’s Kindle, it seems that may have all been for nothing. Why? Because according to The New York Times some eBooks may still be $9.99 after all. Shocking, right?

This is a money game, and everyone understands that. From the perspective of a publishing house, they want more money. Apple wants more money. And they’re all out there trying to figure out how they can do that. When Amazon told publishers that they would be selling new releases, both hard cover and soft cover, for only $9.99, there was a collective sigh of frustration. That was made worse by Amazon not carrying if titles hit the best seller list or not, where some hard cover novels can reach up to the $30 mark. No matter what, titles would be sold at the $9.99 price, and if print publishers wanted to jump on the forward-moving train of the digital age (and they didn’t want the majority of their books to be made free, courtesy of Google Books), they wouldn’t raise a fuss.

But now that the iPad has come onto the digital reader scene, bringing along with it the force and personality of Steve Jobs, everything has changed. Publishers like Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and the Penguin Group have all inked deals with Apple, in hopes of reaping the benefits of the Agency Model, and higher priced digital books. According to publishers, using this new model, they can easily mark their new hard cover releases anywhere between $12.99 and $14.99, with the higher mark-up leaning more towards best sellers.

However, it seems Apple was being gracious in those talks. According to three different sources speaking to the Times, it seems that the $12.99 to $14.99 price points were merely a ceiling, and that most eBooks (iBooks) will still hit that $9.99 point. And, while some of those hard cover best-sellers can reach that $30 mark, most novels on the New York Times best-seller list are heavily discounted, to hopefully sell more copies. Apple wants to reflect this pricing accordingly. If a book gets released at $14.99, and subsequently hits the best-seller list, then Apple wants to make it possible for that particular book to drop down to $12.99, and lower if need be.

This should raise a lot of eyebrows, considering the fuss this has all created over the last few weeks. Pricing is paramount for a lot of different sources: customers, publishers, and even the authors. While the Agency model may make sense to some publishers, there are still some out there that believe 70% to share with authors is too high. Apple takes 30% in their Agency model, so this is why the change would be necessary. We’re interested to see where this goes. And as always, let us know what you think of all this in the forums!

[via The New York Times]