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Originally Posted by TimW
Publishers want preorders to be discounted? I wasn't aware of that. Apple's current price of The Silkworm is $8.99, the list is $14.99. Apple's current price of The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand is $9.99, the list is $14.99. I can find others if you like. Apple doesn't seem to have a problem discounting when they want to discount.
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Publishers want preorder sales in order to claim bestseller status. If you follow the links in the article in the OP you find
this:
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Pre-orders are not just sales – they are a major factor in getting new books to the top of the bestseller charts, so Amazon is denting Rowling's chances of creating another hit title stateside.
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Preorder discounts result in higher preorder sales which is good for the publishers. But the discounts come from the profit margins of the retailers:
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While the battle is being waged over the price and availability of physical books, Amazon's real dispute is about digital publishing. It takes a 30% cut of most books sold, but any discounts are paid for from that commission. The retailer would like to share the cost of discounting books, but publishers are fighting hard to avoid this outcome.
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