Borders’ website has it at list price ($30).

If you want the Rogoff book today, and you don’t want to buy the kindle version, you’re going to have to find a Borders, where they sell it for $35 or Barnes & Noble who have it for $25 assuming the store price and the website price are the same. (BN don’t offer an ebook version.)

“My comments have nothing to do with the content of “This Time is Different” which was referred to me as an excellent book to consider buying. I was doing just that (which typically begins with a Kindle Sample Download) when I realized that the Kindle price was nearly $16 (only a couple dollars below the hardcopy price). Having read today that Amazon was fighting with Macmillan Publishing over their new book pricing plans I vote with Amazon to keep Kindle prices reasonable.”

a) the writer admits it has nothing to do with the content
b) the book isn’t published by Macmillan, it’s from Princeton University Press, so their one-star review is completely misdirected anyway.

It is a product, and is capitalized by Amazon when mentioned in text, but the name is not capitalized in the logo on the product itself.

What does that mean? Is FS subtly suggesting that her book wouldn’t sell without a subsidy? If that aint envy! Shame on him!

When I buy stuff like headphones I will look at stars. I want to know if the stuff will break within 2 months. But for books that’s pretty irrelevant. I know the author, I know the subject. That’s all I need to know. For instance, if you buy a political book that’s liberal, you know you’ll get plenty of 1 star from conservatives.

In which case, both her and Macmillan’s incentives are exactly aligned.
She is just complaining that they have done their math wrong and hence their strategy will lead to lower profit.

I suspect they might know a little more about the publishing business than Yves, but perhaps not.

But if you’re reading non-fiction as you would a novel, straight through, for leisure, then the kindle is fine. I do kinda wish footnotes could be displayed in a fashion similar to how dictionary definitions are displayed, instead of requiring a jump.

As for prices, prices for non-fiction have never been limited to the $9.99 price. Stigum’s The Money Market 4th ed is $73.68 for kindle, which is still less than they sell the hardcover for ($80-some) and much less than Borders wants for the hardcover ($129).

Technical books such as O’Reilly programming references are typically over $30.

If you go to the kindle store on the web, select non-fiction, and sort descending by price, the prices start in the $7,000 range, for specialist nuclear engineering texts.

I would be very surprised if the price of her book had anything to do with Macmillan seeking to raise prices. I bet her book would have been the same price a year ago. As far as I know, Macmillan’s price increases applied to fiction, which has more typically fallen under the former $9.99 price.

In general, one-star reviews are the domain of cranks, drive-by ideologues, and morons with unrealistic expectations. One-star reviews on nonfiction books due to price are part of the latter category.

Two-star reviews are worth paying attention to, as they tend to be more thoughtful.

I know nothing off Wall Street and the financial goings-on asscociated with it and quite frankly the whole industry confuses me beyond belief. I do enjoy reading your blogs though Mr. Salmon because even though I am not educated enough in the field to have an opinion about things, they might help me get some sort of small grasp about what is going on.