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Their actions make them seem pretty fixed on the idea that their pool of potential customers hasn't changed, and every dollar spent on .epub instead of hardcover is lost profit, instead of recognizing the huge pool of potential .epub buyers who were never potential hardcover buyers.
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You need to read the entire quote (and indeed the linked article). Publishers are indeed adjusting to the realities of a shift to digital, but that takes time and money. Telling a couple of people in the marketing department to "THINK DIGITAL!!" ain't gonna butter the beans. Catering to folks who want Steven King quality at indie author prices sounds like a way to drive away professional authors away from the fiction market . And of course, this sidesteps the major reason for the agency pricing model: to ensure a diversity of booksellers by preventing Amazon from monopolizing the ebook retailer market. Most Mobile Readers skate past this , but there are very good economic and public policy reasons for making sure that there is just not one ebook retailer . Government regulators understand this, which is why in the end they will let agency pricing stand.