[eschwartz]

I think this whole argument is a red herring. Amazon is merely providing an explanation for their demand that any Agency Pricing agreement see general prices capped at $9.99 unless there is some stated reason why any other price point would be better. At which point Amazon will magically agree that since there is some actual comprehensible reason, OK lets price it at that price point, because of the special circumstances that make this book different from any run-of-the-mill thriller.

And they are making a prediction that the number of ebooks where Amazon and Hachette will agree (under the potential new Agency agreement) deserve a higher price, will be a low number. Any such book will be specialized even if it is 30% of all ebooks because by definition it will have special reasons.