Quote:
Originally Posted by Psykhe
Charels Stross (a pretty good sci-fi author who won the Hugo award this year) actually does not recommend this (pretty good read about the ebook mechanics and book production costs btw). |
From that:
"[...] allowing Amazon to pick a price point, sell at that price point, and only pay the publisher a percentage royalty, rather than a fixed discount off a (publisher-set) SRP.
Amazon got what they wanted at first, because they were the biggest ebook vendor; if you're the only game in town you can play hardball. Apple broke this perception earlier this year when they proposed an alternative model: neither wholesaler nor publisher, but agent, taking a commission on whatever the publishers sold their books for."
If this is an accurate description of the pre-Agency 5 situation, I'm not surprised they did their deal with Apple, and I think they were perfectly correct to do so.
The ideal that you would hand your product over to someone else, who would have complete authority to set the price and pay you a percentage, is ridiculous.
I don't agree with the Apple and Amazon special cases, where they are guaranteed the lowest prices, in an ideal world publishers should set a 'wholesale' price to the bookstores, who can then charge whatever they like at retail.