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Amazon.com has started selling some new releases for $9; other retailers
are offering pre-orders for books at steep discounts, as well.
The price wars between book retailers is no longer just talk; it has begun.
Amazon.com is now selling some new book releases on hardcover for as little as $9.
Among the $9 offerings at Amazon.com are John Grisham's Ford County and Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna -- both highly-anticipated new releases that hit store shelves just today.
That $9 pricetag is more reminiscent of what you'd pay for a good paperback. New hardcover books typically sell for upwards of $20.
The so-called "price wars" began a few weeks ago -- when Walmart.com announced that it would be selling pre-orders of hotly anticipated new releases for $9, before later lowering the price two cents to $8.98. Amazon.com and Target.com quickly followed with similarly-priced pre-orders.
Publishers and some smaller book stores have worried that the extreme price cutting could hurt the industry, by harming competition and cutting into author advances. The American Booksellers Association has asked the Justice Department to investigate the price-cutting.
But the new releases for sale on Amazon.com today are no longer pre-orders; they're simply for sale. At $9 per book.
Competitors Walmart.com and Target.com are also selling Ford County andThe Lacuna at a discount today, but not as low as Amazon.com. Walmart.com lists Ford County for $12 and The Lacuna for $13.50, while Target.com is pricing Ford County at $15 andThe Lacuna at $18.89.
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