MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Write-in campaign claims that no readers were harmed by the agency model

petrucci · 05-13-2012, 07:13 AM

Sadly, I don't have much time to write now. If books were not fungible in any way, then a publisher could charge a lot of money for a particular book, as the only way to get that book is to pay its price. No collusion would be needed, they just need to sell the book for a lot of money. I suspect that the publishing industry has found that there is competition in the book market which is caused by fungibility. Moreover, I believe that they think that their main competition are books published by other big publishers. Thus, publishers colluded to keep prices high.

05-13-2012, 07:13 AM	#24
petrucci Groupie Posts: 198 Karma: 1647827 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Sadly, I don't have much time to write now. If books were not fungible in any way, then a publisher could charge a lot of money for a particular book, as the only way to get that book is to pay its price. No collusion would be needed, they just need to sell the book for a lot of money. I suspect that the publishing industry has found that there is competition in the book market which is caused by fungibility. Moreover, I believe that they think that their main competition are books published by other big publishers. Thus, publishers colluded to keep prices high.