Melville House Books

Given the last week’s vicious price war over the prices of bestsellers in the print world, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer asks, “Is it too much of a leap for a similar price war to hit the e-reader world?”

In a post at the PI’s blog, bookseller Michael Lieberman says, “By next year’s holiday season, if not sooner, I trust we will be well into a e-reader price war with at least one of the e-readers being offered for less than $100 … I wouldn’t be surprised to see Amazon offering a plan where they ultimately give away the Kindle, or sell it at low price ($50 or less), and charge the customer a little more for the content. So, instead of an e-book being $9.99 for one who purchased the Kindle outright an e-book might be $12.99 or $14.99 for someone who acquires it at a lesser price or for free.”

Others will soon follow suit, he says, so “Fasten you seat belt this ride is just starting.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.