Philosophy Now - Kindle Edition

[RickLewis]

I'm happy to say that after a fair bit of negotiation and technical preparation, Philosophy Now's edition for the Amazon Kindle reader has just been launched.

It is one of only 53 magazines in the Kindle magazine store so far, and it is the first philosophy periodical of any kind to be sold there.

If you have a Kindle and want to give it a try, you can get a 14 day free trial from the Kindle store.

In the UK Kindle store:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophy-Now/ ... 65&sr=1-40

In the US Kindle store:
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Now/dp ... 65&sr=1-40

If you are an Amazon customer and you like Philosophy Now, or like the Kindle version or even DON'T like it, then do please consider writing a review on one of those pages. Cheers!

[John]

As a subscriber whose become addicted to his Kindle since getting one for Christmas I'll definitely have a look to compare the two formats. I'll probably wait until the next issue though.

That aside, I'm going to be a pain and bring up the costs.

The pricing structure seems a bit odd. A single issue from Amazon UK is a very hefty at £7.99 (is it actually meant to be that?) when I can order back issues on paper for £3.50.

The subscription price of £1.99 per month in the UK means that it would cost me £23.88 per year for a subscription as opposed to the £14.35 it costs me as an individual at the moment. That's not much of an incentive even if it does mean I can pay for it monthly rather than all at once.

More bizarrely though the USA edition is priced at $1.99 per month which makes it a lot cheaper than the UK edition and gives an annual cost of $23.88 per year compared to a paper subscription cost of $32.

Unless I'm missing something there seems to be a big incentive for Americans to buy PN on Kindle but none for UK readers.

[Typist]

Congrats Rick!

John, you stingy bastard, I've just raised the price of my posts for all bald lesbian readers to $22.00 per post.

A friend recently lent me his Kindle for a few days. Interesting little gadget!

[RickLewis]

John, thanks and actually I would use a stronger word than odd - I'm assuming that this is a mistake by Amazon, and I'm in the middle of chasing it up by email at the moment.

The prices we were given in advance by Amazon were the US dollar ones: $1.99 per month, or $7.99 for a single issue. This seems pretty much okay and as you say, for US readers it represents a reasonable saving. Even for a single copy, $7.99 is livable with, I think, considering that the mag costs $7.49 from news-stands in the USA.

We assumed that UK prices would be the sterling equivalent of the US ones, but instead Amazon seem to have simply replaced the dollar sign with a pound sign for the UK Kindle store. Like I say, this is probably just a glitch, and we're working on it, so hang onto your wallet for now!

By the way, Kindle are offering a 14 day free trial as they do with all the magazines they sell, but if you want the free trial subscription and DON'T want to pay for an ongoing subscription at the end of it, do please remember to cancel during the 14 day period or you'll be charged automatically after that.

[John]

Thanks for the reply Rick.

[RickLewis]

Amazon have replied to my question that the higher price in the UK is not a mistake - it is company policy because of higher distribution costs to UK customers. I don't have the figures for that, but I do know that magazines are delivered to Kindles via the mobile phone network and also that electronic magazines in the UK (unlike paper magazines) are subject to 20% VAT, which is included in the UK prices on Kindle.

Anyway, they review pricing strategy every few months and have promised to consider my comments when having their next review, but for the time being I'm afraid we're stuck with UK prices of £1.99/month or £7.99 for a single issue. I think the UK subscription price is high compared with the ordinary UK print subscription price but probably some keen UK Kindle owners will buy Philosophy Now that way anyway for the convenience. And the US subscription price ($1.99/month) is really pretty good.

[John]

Higher distribution costs and 3G? I've got a Wi-Fi only Kindle so where's the 3G cost to Amazon?

Interestingly I recently bought a single issue of Asimov's Science Fiction on the UK Kindle shop and it cost me £2.49. On the US Amazon shop it would cost $6.99 which is £4.34 (at the current exchange rate) so it looks like higher UK cost don't apply to every periodical.

The monthly subscription rate for Asimov's is also £2.99 in the UK and $5.99 in the USA and that makes the UK rate 73p cheaper at current exchange rates so not all periodicals are more expensive in the UK. Unless they have good figures to back it up methinks Amazon is fibbing.

Looks like I'll continue to demand a tree die for my PN while I get my SF fix via Asimov's delivered on Kindle.

[RickLewis]

Yes, we've put your point to them about Asimov's SciFi but they aren't budging. They referred me to their terms and conditions, which say that pricing is entirely up to them! I expect this will be sorted out in time. We're still talking with them about a few minor things that need fixing but we've been making good progress and the Kindle edition seems popular.

[John]

That's interesting because I've read a few articles about Kindle prices and how Amazon are keen to promote the idea that publishers are the main reason some books remain expensive on Kindle whilst others have accused Amazon of being less than honest about the while thing. I can't remember precise details beyond that vague recollection though and the argument was about books rather than periodicals but still...

Thanks for the update anyway Rick.