PW spent the week of December 10 monitoring the Amazon Kindle top 10 bestsellers to see if the new e-book policies of three of the big six publishers would affect the charts, but the sales for the week actually showed a decline in sales for e-books with lower, non-agency prices. On December 11, the top 10 Kindle bestsellers looked like this:
1. The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski ($2.99; J.A. Redmerski)
2. Stop the Wedding by Stephanie Bond ($0.99; NeedtoRead Books)
3. The Forgotten by David Baldacci ($11.04; Grand Central)
4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn ($12.99; Crown)
5. The Black Box by Michael Connelly ($12.74; Little, Brown)
6. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ($6.41; HMH)
7. The Racketeer by John Grisham ($12.99; Doubleday)
8. Merry Christmas, Alex Cross by James Patterson ($11.04; Little, Brown)
9. Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich ($12.99; Bantam)
10. Persona Non Grata by Ruth Downie ($7.19; Bloomsbury)
The three Hachette titles (Baldacci, Connelly, Patterson) reflected the "new e-book policies." On December 14, the Kindle top 10 had two titles with a "new e-book policy" price (Baldacci and Connelly). The top 10 for December 14 was:
1. The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski ($2.99; J.A. Redmerski)
2. Wallbanger by Alice Clayton ($4.99; Omnific Publishing)
3. Stop the Wedding by Stephanie Bond ($0.99; NeedtoRead Books)
4. The Forgotten by David Baldacci ($11.04; Grand Central)
5. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn ($12.99; Crown)
6. New Moon by Stephenie Meyer ($8.99; Little, Brown Books for Young Readers; NOTE: the e-book was the Kindle Daily Deal for December 13 and its price was dropped to $2.99)
7. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien ($6.41; HMH)
8. The Black Box by Michael Connelly ($12.74; Little, Brown)
9. The Racketeer by John Grisham ($12.99; Doubleday)
10. Loki's Daughters by Delle Jacobs ($2.99; Montlake Romance)
The takeaway: the lower prices for publishers' e-books as a result of the DoJ settlement has had little to no effect, at least at the top of Amazon's bestseller chart.
