Quote:
Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom
This was a price-fixing conspiracy, we all knew it, and everyone hates Amazon.
|
I didn't know it. I still don't. The judge didn't hear witnesses cross-examined. There was no trial.
I don't hate Amazon, but I also don't think having most books be sold by them will help the average reader for long.
Quote:
|
It will be awhile before we see $9.99, but when it hits, we better all buy!
|
We all? Except for a business-related computer programming book, I can't remember the last time I paid that much. What about people for whom $9.99 has to be a rare treat, and normally use the library?
Simon & Schuster eBooks are still not in libraries. The settlement does nothing about that, or about declining advances, or any other situation that might impact the average world-wide reader.
$9.99 loss-leader best-sellers in the world's richest large country, while not cheap enough for the average world-wide reader, are likely low-priced enough to undercut paper books, pushing them into being a luxury niche item like 33 1/3 RPM records are today. Without cheap used books to put downward pressure on prices, Amazon will be under pressure from Wall Street to raise book prices, however much Jeff Bezos loves low prices and high volume.
And if I'm wrong about what happens when semi-cheap eBooks destroy the market for paper books, it will be because Amazon instead took the WalMart route of using market power to squeeze their suppliers, whose advances to authors are already pitifully low.
I could ask how much Amazon publishing advances are, but then people might say I hate Amazon
