Quote:
Originally Posted by ATDrake
Okay, maybe I'm missing something really obvious here.
But wouldn't the logical solution to that be for the hardcover publishers who also hold e-book rights to simply not submit the electronic files for Amazon's Kindle editions (and B&N's, and Sony's, etc.) until several weeks or months had passed after hardcover release and they were satisfied with those important initial sales?
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And in fact, publishers
did withhold electronic content for a bit, prior to the Agency Model pricing scheme. It was part of the Mexican stand down with Amazon, in which Amazon for a bit priced some Kindle editions
lower than $9.99 in a nose thumb at the publishers.
But that sort of solution is temporary, at best. Buyers who prefer an ebook edition may want to read the book upon release. The end result of the Agency Model is effectively "You want to issue the ebook at the same time as the hardcover,
competing with the hardcover? Fine. Charge more for it, and give us a bigger cut, to compensate for what we lose by
not selling the hardcover."
The longer term question is whether ebook prices will drop to Amazon's standard level when the MMPB edition is released. There are some publishers with a questionable grasp of reality who will try to maintain the higher price.
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Dennis