Quote:
Originally Posted by mamasue
can you please explain to me why the publishing houses seem to keep changing availabilty? (geographically?)
those Deaver books I bought on 15 Oct are now not available - are the publishers trying to restrict the sales of ebooks because it affects the sale of paper books?
I didn't think we "ereaders" would be a threat to them just yet!
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About 6 months ago the Agency 5 (5 major publishers) sparked by the entry of Apple's iPad with ibooks and annoyed by Amazon's ebook marketing philosophy changed the goal post location. Books previously not GR became GR and Agency pricing came into play (price fixing).
I lost access to 75% of my purchased ebooks from Diesel. Sometimes GR changed mid series meaning newer books could not be purchased etc.
It is all to do with contractual arrangments and distribution arrangements. In reality the real issue is that the agency 5 publishing houses cannot come to terms with the modern digital age, refusing to change their mid 20th century distibution model and their main desire to protect hard cover sales, where the main profit making stream is.
They gripe about piracy, but they are the ones that encourage it due to their refusal to evolve.
Buyers turn to other means to obtain the book that they want to buy but are prevented buying by GR.