Quote:
Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze
Isn't Amazon doing this partly to break major publishers' stranglehold on pricing?
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"Sometimes a cigar is just a smoke."
Amazon is an opportunistic company that jumps on any opening to make a buck. With ebooks disrupting the balance of power between authors and publishers there is (and for the next few years, will be) an opening for new publishers to get into the game by signing up established authors disastisfied with the terms and practices of traditional publishers.
No need to overthink it: Amazon needs content for Kindle, preferably exclusive. What better, and cheaper, way to secure exclusive Kindle content than by signing up the content producer directly?
The pricing? Last I heard, the average of the prices of the most popular commercial fiction ebooks at the Kindle store was $6.31. At $7.99 they're actually charging a 30% premium. Sneaky, aren't they?
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/...-kindle-store/