Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
You sell me your farmland for say $100,000. I then turn around and sell it for $50,000. That's might right to do so. But with agency eBooks, you sell me the eBook at whatever the cost and then I (as the store selling eBooks) am unable to sell for any other cost then what you tell me. I cannot lower the price, I cannot raise the price, I cannot have a sale or offer a discount. I'm stuck with what you tell me is the price.
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Jon, the error in your statement is that the publishers do not sell the ebook to the ebookseller under the agency scheme, which is why you pay sales tax (if your state requires it) where previously you didn't. Under agency, the ebookseller (i.e., Amazon, Sony, etc.) receive a sales fee. They are not the sellers, the publisher is the seller and the Amazons are being paid for the space and advertising.
Your farmland example is the way nonagency book selling works and is why Amazon and Sony, etc., can choose to discount those books. (Technically this isn't correct either as the ebookseller doesn't "buy" the ebook until it sells the ebook, but for our purposes, it is close enough.)