Majority of the Kindle Store’s Top 100 Bestsellers Are Free eBooks

As readers around the country unwrapped new Amazon Kindles for the holidays, publishing types took a hard look at the contents of the Kindle bestseller list. By GalleyCat’s count yesterday afternoon, 64 of the 100 eBooks currently topping the Kindle bestseller list were priced at $0.00.

The number one bestseller was “Midnight in Madrid” by Noel Hynd, another free Kindle book. The list changes every hour, but these are fascinating and anxiety-producing statistics for publishers. With more than 60 percent of the one hundred most popular books in the eBook store priced at 0.00, how can publishers interact with this new readership and still earn money?

We took an informal count after reading a Washington Post article that explained: “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. But publishers can’t hear this, because they’re a little distracted right now.”

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