Quote:
Further, Amazon targeted Macmillan during the process, and pulled their books -- and only their books -- in a failed attempt to exert pressure during negotiations.
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I think that BPHs like Macmillan and Random House do have the leverage to face down Amazon. Let's face it, those BPHs have the BSAs (best selling authors) and those are who draw customers to bookstores. If a customer can't find James Patterson or Stephen King at Amazon, they'll move on to BN or Kobo without a backward glance-and Amazon knows this.
THe smaller publishers like IPG don't have that kind of leverage , which is why Amazon rolled over them earlier this year.
The DOJ seems to think that the individual BPHs won't be able to face down Amazon and impose aggency pricing in future, but I think that the BPHs can and will-because the alternative will be worse.