[JoeD]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Amazon's statement:



isn't "actual sales data."

Correct, but their statement is based on their own sales data which is what I mentioned in my post, I was not saying it _was_ actual sales data. Just that their conclusion that he growth rate of agency books is slowing compared to that of non-agency books is based on actual sales data and not just a opinion piece.

To avoid going around in circles, here's your original post

OK, let me simplify it for you. If a product is overpriced, demand for the product will decline and sales of the product will go down. Precisely the opposite has happened with ebooks.

I said

Wouldn't that assume a stable and established market? ebooks are still a relatively new market and one that is still growing. Rather than a drop in sales, agency pricing is more likely to cause a reduction in rate of growth, perhaps stabalising in years to come with a smaller market than it might otherwise attain (assuming pricing policies remain the same)

I wanted to show you that sales might not decline when a product is overpriced if a new market is still in a growth phase, but there could be an impact on the rate of growth of that market.

You asked for proof with:

The burden of proof would still be on those who are claiming that agency pricing is causing a reduction in the rate of growth. There is no evidence of anything but a rapid rise in e-book sales, despite agency pricing.

I searched for and provided the evidence you asked for from a retailer to back my point up after you requested it, yet despite this you're unwilling to accept this. I showed you that sales could still be increasing despite a slowing of growth rate in agency books. I'm not sure what else I can say on it really.

Please don't misunderstand my post, I'm not saying agency pricing is clearly going to go wrong for publishers (although I think it may), it's hard to know which way it'll go as there's way too many factors at play. But the introduction of it has reduced the rate of growth for agency books which can be attributed to the price point as a similar reduction has not occurred with non-agency books.