As we mentioned last week, Karen Armstrong’s new book, The Case for God, is out. And now you can read the first chapter for free. Just click on this link, and then the book viewer on the left side of the page. It will expand, and from there you can start flipping through the pages. Be warned, the viewer/reader is a little clunky. The downside of free, I guess.
$27.95 for the eBook? Seth and Scott are right… The major publishing houses don’t know what is coming or what they are doing… Good riddance.
Just curious Mark, what would you realistically prefer to see? Lower prices? Free? What model works for you and the publisher at the same time? Personally, I see a day coming soon when publishers get cut out of the loop, and books get distributed directly and electronically by Apple and Amazon at very low prices. I can live with that.
I agree, Dan, although I’ll go even one step further and reference Scott’s podcast that you posted a while back: it wouldn’t surprise me if in the future that yes, you could get a Kindle or Apple version, but that you could also get a copy directly from the Karen Armstrong store. :)
I have mixed feelings about the price point Amazon has established. I would love to have been privy to the discussions on where to set it.
Let me finish my free copy of Free and I’ll let you know more of what I think. But seriously… How in the world does Random House arrive at selling that eBook at that price when you can buy the Kindle version for $9.99? Please don’t tell me that they think people will pay full dead-tree price to buy it in a format that is, in their minds, more “open” than the Kindle format…