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I've said it before, and I'll say it again now: I am grateful that the Agency model came in.
That's not to say that there aren't many, many irritating things about the Agency model. Chief amongst them is the lack of ebook sales. (As in "20% off the latest Dresden Files", etc.)
Without Agency though, Amazon was very, very close to establishing a monopsony in the ebook retail market. Without Agency, I wouldn't have Kobo. Barnes & Noble's ebook division probably would've folded ages ago. Sony? Likely the same.
Amazon took the concept of loss leaders to an entirely insane level. No other retailer was willing to take the massive losses Amazon was on ebooks... and who can blame them? And the question always was: when would Amazon use their clout to not only dictate release dates of ebooks (the infamous "kiss the buy button goodbye" incident) but price?
I much prefer the market as it is now as it was before Agency. And since most books I want are now a few dollars less then a paperback... I'm good.
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