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Originally Posted by stonetools
(snip)
Frankly , I don't think that there is any way in the long run that small ebook stores can compete with Amazon or BN. The people the DoJ might have the most sympathy for is the small independent B&M booksellers who complain, rightly, that they were showplaces for Amazon: people would browse thir stores, accept advice from their staff, and then go home and buy from Amazon. THEY want agency pricing extended to physical books. Frankly, everyone in the book industry supports agency pricing EXCEPT Amazon. I've yet to see anyone doubt that Amazon would not achieve complete dominance in the ebook market without agency pricing, which would be an unacceptable outcome for the DOJ.
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No one in the DoJ seemed to have much sympathy for small B&M booksellers 15-20 years ago when they were eradicated by B&N and Borders. Ruthless as it was, it was "just business." I don't know about anyone else, but I don't see Amazon returning to "complete dominance" if/when the Agency agreement is eliminated. Why? An analogy...did the iPad have market dominance two years ago? Sure, the iPad WAS the tablet market...it did not have an equal. The iPad no longer dominates absolutely. It still dominates but not absolutely. The iPad now has some decent competition. Using that analogy, I would posit that there's no likelihood that Amazon could re-establish 90% dominance with a "NYT bestsellers are $9.99 unless otherwise marked" policy. Kobo, B&N, and others now have established bookstores. It won't be that easy to recover pre-Agency marketshare.
The NYT had a story yesterday entitled
Government Pressuring Publishers to Adjust Pricing Policy on E-Books. They made the lazy mistake of repeating the revisionist history of "Amazon sold nearly all ebooks at $9.99 or less." I wrote a post elaborating that the policy was "NYT bestsellers are $9.99 unless otherwise marked," not ALL or nearly all. Although they didn't print my post, they quietly corrected the text to read:
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Discussions between Apple and the publishers developed two years ago as publishers grew frustrated with Amazon’s practice of pricing most newly released and best-selling electronic books at $9.99. That price was sometimes below what Amazon paid publishers for the books and was aimed at lifting the sales of e-books and Amazon’s Kindle e-reader.
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Better late than never, I suppose.
