Ken Follett’s Kindle Sales Dropped 48% After $2 Price Increase On Book

On the stage at Digital Book World today, Russ Grandinetti, VP of Kindle Content at Amazon, spoke about the benefits of releasing books in eBook form. Boasting Amazon’s sales figures –the Kindle being the top selling item of all time; Kindle owners buy 3.3x as many books in the year after purchasing a Kindle than in the year prior—Grandinetti urged publishers to get their books in the Kindle store, if they haven’t done so already.

“However fast you think this change is happening, it is probably happening faster than you think,” he said referring to eBook adoption.

Grandinetti addressed the controversial question of pricing and urged publishers to experiment with low prices and free promotions, as you see in the video game and movie world. “We just need to make sure that the book competes with other media,” he said.

Challenging the agency model, Grandinetti shared a stat for one of Ken Follett’s books. According to Grandinetti, the week the publisher switched from the $7.99 Amazon price on the title to the $9.99 publisher determined price, Kindle sales of the book dropped by 48%. “Demand for eBooks is more elastic than you think,” he said.

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