Comments on: Chapters for Sale

By: Catherine

Catherine — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:44:51 +0000

Crazy intrigues me so I went to the Random House website to check it out.

The entire ebook is $17.95. If you buy it a chapter at a time it’s $20.93 (6 chapters plus an epilogue). So, you pay a little extra if you make it to the end. But, you could potentially save money if you discover it’s a wallbanger halfway through.

You can read the book’s entire introduction for free here. It prompted me to request the book at the library – I only buy non-DRM ebooks.

By: Keishon

Keishon — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:28:36 +0000

The question is will readers pay $2.99?

Are they crazy?

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 01:58:25 +0000

What SusanG said – This is innovation???

Put me in the “hell no” column

By: ジェーン(Jān)

ジェーン(Jān) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:26:38 +0000

I’m with Jayne. Why should we pay for their promotions?

By: whey

whey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:11:26 +0000

It seems like it might be an attractive alternative for stand-alone chapters (non-fiction, tech, self-help, anthologies), and/or if the total for buying all chapters is not more than buying the book in whole (lots of tech books are $20+). It sounds like an iTunes model.

I don’t think this model works for a story (that relies on previous and future chapters) or for mass market paperbacks (that are usually less than $8 a book).

By: Susan G

Susan G — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:57:55 +0000

Wow – it’s no wonder the publishing industry is doing poorly if this is their idea of innovation. Incredibly stupid – no way would I buy ONE chapter for $2.99. They should be paying me to take the time to read the sample chapter and let them know if I’d be interested enough to buy the entire book. Ooooh, I think I just found my ideal job . . . . .

By: LinM

LinM — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:56:07 +0000

In the old days (2007), if an eBook was only available in Mobipocket DRM format, the publisher was Penguin. Starting at the beginning of 2008, RandomHouse joined Penguin as a witless eBook publisher – a significant portion of their eBooks are only available as DRM’d Mobi. Who knew that they could sink even lower? $2.99 for a chapter? – I’m not even remotely interested.

By: Shannon Stacey

Shannon Stacey — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:48:43 +0000

I’d go with hell no, too. That’s what excerpts are for.

But if they’re using it to determine potential sales, does that mean if only a handful of readers want to pay the read an excerpt, they’ll determine the book won’t sell and pull it? On the flip side, if it’s a “popular book”, don’t they already have an idea if it will sell?

Maybe not my place to second guess Random House, but that’s just stupid.

By: Kitten

Kitten — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:43:45 +0000

Yeah, I have to agree with the ‘hell no’ answer. The difference between this and visiting the book store (with fuel costs, etc) is that when at the book store, I can sample a great deal many more books’ first chapters. At $2.99, I expect nearly a full book, not a chapter.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:12:04 +0000

The question is will readers pay $2.99?

My answer is hell no.