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Originally Posted by Barcey
1) There isn't a benefit for them to lie.
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Agreed. Too much risk of being accused of stock market manipulation.
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Originally Posted by Barcey
2) They're in the best position to have this data across all ebooks and publishers.
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Agreed again. Individual publishers only know about their own books.
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Originally Posted by Barcey
3) Their entire business (beyond ebooks) is built on knowing this type of data.
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Agreed again.
But because I agree with you, I know that Amazon knows what happens to the total Amazon sales of a book, eBook and paper, when they change the eBook price. That's what's they have to care more about internally than the effect on eBook sales alone. And yet they only released the effect on eBook sales. It's not lying. But it's an attempt to make a case rather than to be informative.
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The publishers should have this data as well but only for their own books.
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Yes, in that way Amazon has more data. But if someone at Amazon wants to know what happens to the total sales, paper and eBook, of a title, when Amazon changes a price -- they are out of luck. Amazon knows when it raises an eBook price the extent to which Amazon paper and eBook sales change. But they don't know what the effect is on sales of that title at independent books stores, or at other internet retailers. Only the publisher knows the whole sales story for any particular book.
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Originally Posted by Barcey
Amazon is in the business of giving the customer what the customer wants. The publishers are in the business of giving the customer what the publishers want.
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They all are in the business of compromising between what they want (more money, more power) and what the customer wants (products they like for close to free). Look at all the right-wing titles on the nonfiction New York Times bestseller list. You really think New York publishers want people reading that
