Business Opportunities Weblog

The Secret Behind Kindle’s Best-Selling E-Books

By on January 12, 2010 in Ideas

One big reason readers choose e-books over ink and paper versions: The digital ones are cheaper, reports CNet News.

That wasn’t the case when e-books first appeared a decade ago. But Amazon has made a point of selling its Kindle titles at a discount to physical editions, even if it means losing money.

And then there are the titles that Kindle owners really, really love–the ones they get for nothing. As the Washington Post noted earlier this week, the list of best-selling Kindle titles is dominated by free books:

Amazon’s customers have made it clear that $9.99 is still too high for their taste. Most titles in the company’s list of top 100 Kindle bestsellers are priced below $9.99, and the most popular price point is $0.00.

The good folks at MediaBistro have gone ahead and counted, so you don’t have to. As of a day ago, 64 of Amazon’s top 100 Kindle titles cost nada.

How exactly does that work? I understand why Amazon is able to hand out public domain works like “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” and “Pride and Prejudice” for free. But I’m not sure what’s going on with titles like Noel Hynd’s “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker: Recipes for Entertaining” (#9).

Photo by CNet.

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Rich Whittle has added 6,226 posts to Business Opportunities Weblog.

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  • Jaclyn Wells

    I love the idea of ebooks. It’s so cool that instead of keeping a bunch of books lying around your house, now a days you can just log online and read the book whenever you want wherever you want. it’s so conveinent.

  • http://wahm.business-opportunities.biz Angela Shupe

    Who wouldn’t prefer a free e-book over one that is going to cost $10. I don’t blame them.

    My Christmas gift to myself was an mp3 player and it happens to have a small ebook feature so I can read them on it. Freebies were the first thing I looked for. Although, I have to admit, I still prefer real books.

  • B-Mac

    regarding the #9 book on slow cookers, which I have downloaded. This is a great little book. If you like the cooking channel, specifically Mr Brown, this fits. Some of the free stuff is not so good. There is lots of nice free stuff, and free is good. It helps justify the cost of the kindle. When I travel I can down load a couple of newspapers for the flight for less than $1. And I did not have to stop to get an extra paper. My wife will be reading the hardcopy when she gets up. Not good to take the paper with you.

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