Diesel eBooks – Sounds like they’re selling truck manuals, but not so. They’ve got quite a collection over there: how-to, literature, mainstream and new releases. Google around a bit and you’ll see that the number of online eBook retailers is growing daily. Diesel’s just one of them.
I did a price check. Now you’ll notice I keep going back to Stephen King, and there’s a reason. He’s familiar to everybody on the planet, and he’s got books that range from almost ancient to new releases. The thought is, we can work out some decent prices there by comparing old to new, yah?
Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot is available in all formats. They’ve got that listed from $16.48 in Mobi format up to $26.75 as an M-soft document.
Okay, let’s do the math. 30 year old book… very good book, but those prices are just crazy for an eBook of that antiquity.
It’s in the same list with his Dreamcatcher (okay, not as good a book…) which sells for $7.33. Come on. We’re not stupid. We know how digital books work. Once the file is created, it’s clear sailing. There’s no storage or shipping required at that point. And with these old books, lord they’re still cruising on decades-old press and advertising. TOO MUCH!
Let’s have a look at our test eBooks at diesel-ebooks.com:
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
They’ve got it for sale from $9.11 to $10.10 depending on the format.
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman is selling at $15.33 to $16.53 also depending on the format.
And of course, we’ll check in on Ken Follet’s work:
World Without End by Follett, Ken is on ‘sale’ as an eBook for $21.23.
The Pillars of the Earth by Follett, Ken is going for $7.71.
Shopping visits like this have brought me to the conclusion that these guys either have no idea how intelligent their consumers are, or they actually believe that people do not shop around, or ‘google’ for the best or better prices.
It’s madness. Digital files priced the same as actual paperback or hardcover books when married to expensive eBook Readers completely negates any sensible reason for going digital. The hell with that. And to have comparable prices for older titles that would otherwise be sitting on a publisher’s backlist makes even less sense.
Do they not know how many of us are out here or how gigantic this bookshop is?
Of course, having said that Diesel eBooks also offers some of the cheapest eBooks I’ve seen yet. For example:Â Darkness Calls by Caridad Pineiro for $3.57, Touch of the Wolf by Karen Whiddon for $3.63 and The Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver for $5.51. Granted, some of these are old pulps or romance, but these at least reflect the reality of eBook publishing. It costs nothing to store them or ship them… and other than new releases the majority have not been advertised in years… there’s no justification for high prices.
