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Originally Posted by khalleron
The only thing wrong with that argument, DMcCunney, is that if the publishers didn't want ebooks to compete with hardcovers, then they should just not have released the ebook at the same time.
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Did you not read what I wrote?
Amazon released it.
They asked Amazon to delay the ebook release. Amazon refused, and
cut prices on selected titles in a thumb of the note at the publishers.
At that point, they
did in fact withhold content from Amazon. Amazon was forced to a compromise, and the compromise was the Agency Model.
See
http://www.bostonreview.net/BR35.6/r...i.php#c5t_form for a look at the background.
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They wanted to have their cake and eat it, too - sell ebooks alongside hardcovers at the same price as hardcovers.
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No, they wanted to make as much money on ebooks released
at the same time as the hardcover as they did on the corresponding hardcover sale. That's
not the same thing.
When the dust settles, you can expect to see two tiered pricing. If you want the ebook cheap, you can wait for it, the same way you now wait for the paperback instead of buying the hardcover. If you want to read the ebook
now, at the same time the hardcover is on sale, expect to pay a premium for early access.
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Well, they got their way, but I don't think you can argue pure self-defense against the big bad wolf in this case.
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Under the circumstances, I
can.
But I don't see Amazon as the Big Bad Wolf, nor see the Agency Model publishers as villains. Amazon is trying to increase it's market share at the expense of other retailers. Publishers are trying to
survive in a changing environment.
Businesses are just like individuals. They all behave in what they believe to be their own best interests. These best interests often clash, just as individual's best interests do. Our economy is a dynamic tension of such competing interests.
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A publishing cartel controlling prices for almost all books published is a far cry from an individual author trying to control the price for their handful, or less, of books.
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They aren't a cartel in the legal sense of the word (you may assume their legal staffs burned the midnight oil to be sure that was true.) They are a group of publishers who agreed to change the terms under which they sold content to Amazon, in a fashion that gave them more control over the retail price.
This is not uncommon. Look around, and see what sorts of discounts you find offered on Apple or Nintendo products. Both companies police their retail channels, because both sell through retailers. They want a broad base of retailers, and don't want any particular retailer using cut throat pricing to expand its market share at the expense of others, possibly putting other retailers out of business. That potentially harms them as producers.
So it is with the Agency 5 and Amazon.
See my earlier questions about what happens if Amazon "wins" and becomes the dominant ebook retailer.
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Dennis