Quote:
Originally Posted by Fbone
Realistically, $12.99 down to $9.99 is $3. Is that $3 a big difference for the average reader? One book a month person? Even for the heavier readers that may save $12/month?
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Shatzkin is implying that without agency pricing, publishers or retailers will be experimenting with $3-5 ebooks, which would directly compete with the $1-3 self-pub market, and this would knock indie authors out of the marketplace, because we all know that they couldn't possibly compete on the basis of quality writing. Everyone knows $3 ebooks by "unknown" authors only sell because they're not offered on equivalent terms with "popular" (read: BPH) authors.
Plz to ignore any data that implies "an author who sells a million books is no longer unknown, regardless of whether they're carried in bookstores."
Unlike Shatzkin, I don't believe that BPHs are going to start offering backlist genre ebooks at $4 each, no matter how much the market indicates they'd sell in the millions. I *also* don't believe that readers will turn entirely away from unknown authors if they do.