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Something to bear in mind is that the bigger the publisher, the more likely it is to opt for the Agency 5 Model. This does not allow discounting of ebooks.
It's most unpopular with online stores, who still, of course, can still discount treebooks as they like. I can't help but wonder if the oft-resulting ebook-treebook pricing anomaly (especially on new releases and potential blockbuster sales) is a way of hitting back against Agency 5. Whatever discount is offered, you see, the stores must still pay the publisher full wholesale price on these high-potential treebooks, so these discounts mean books are sold at a loss to the store ... the publisher's profits are only hit by reduced ebook sales because of the artificially created higher-than-treebook cover price.
My own indipendent house, by the way, didn't opt for Agency 5 and all our ebooks are DRM-free. Whereas we often see our paperbacks discounted, it's never yet been anywhere close to a level that ever makes our ebook editions as expensive or more so than paper editions. Even with discounted paperbacks, ebook versions are at least half the cover price.
Our ebooks are also sometimes discounted by an individual retailer, but that doesn't hit us or them. Their very high sales commission covers them, and our contract with each store stipulate that we cannot offer ebooks to any other store any anything less than our ($5.95 across-the-board) Recommended Retail Price, so we are still paid on RRP minus those huge commissions.
Best wishes. Neil
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