Quote:
Originally Posted by Elfwreck
The impression we've gotten from what we've heard of the agency pricing contracts is that no, retailers are not allowed to offer discounts. They aren't paying the publishers (for example) $7 for a $10-retail-price ebook, and have $3 to take as profit or offer discounts from. They are getting 30 percent of the $10 price, which they are not allowed to touch.
Amazon was perfectly willing to sell with lower profit margins, and to lose money on some books in order to encourage people to buy other things from them.
This was not about the publishers insisting on a higher price per book -- it was about trying to prevent the public from thinking $10 was a reasonable price for an ebook. More than one publisher announced that they were very disturbed at the idea of people getting used to $10 ebooks, because then they'd start to demand them, and publishers insisted that they can't make any profit at that price.
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I see no problem selling an eBook for $10 when the hardcover is the current version. If we then wait until the paperback and the eBook price to lower, then the publisher makes less money. So why screw up something that works?