Bestseller E-Books Could Still Cost $9.99 on iPad

It appears that Apple may have left room to sell some of the most popular e-books at a discount.

During the Apple iPad unveiling, Steve Jobs announced deals with five major publishers that would let them set their own prices for e-books from which Apple would take a 30% cut.


Publishers indicated that e-book editions of newly released adult fiction and nonfiction would sell in a range from $12.99 to $14.99. This is a 30% to 50% increase over current pricing.

However, according to at least three NY Times' sources, "Apple inserted provisions requiring publishers to discount e-book prices on best sellers — so that $12.99-to-$14.99 range was merely a ceiling; prices for some titles could be lower, even as low as Amazon's $9.99. Essentially, Apple wants the flexibility to offer lower prices for the hottest books, those on one of the New York Times best-seller lists, which are heavily discounted in bookstores and on rival retail sites. So, for example, a book that started at $14.99 would drop to $12.99 or less once it hit the best-seller lists."

Apple also wanted e-book pricing to reflect price drops in the hardcover edition. So if a hardcover price was set lower then the typical $26 then the e-book price should be lower than $12.99 even if it did not hit the bestseller list.

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