Quote:
Originally Posted by Manabi
It wasn't really about hurting Amazon, that was mostly trotted out for the trial defense. The BPH's goal was to control pricing. They felt (and still do) that lower pricing on E-books devalues physical books too. I really don't buy that argument myself, but some people do.
Amazon's spat with Hatchette shows that Amazon is very unwilling to go back to the way things were, even if they take a PR beating.
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1- Lately, the BPHs and their supporters have finally started admitting that the conspiracy and the higher ebook prices are about propping up pbooks at BM. Which is why B&N was willingly supporting the conspiracy at the peak of their ebook success. Lower ebook prices don't devalue books but they do devalue the BPHs pbook business model in the eyes of authors. And if newer authors stop submitting to the BPH standard contract, things get very ugly very fast in BPH-land. Witness the fate of Harlequin.
2- Amazon is a lot more flexible than their demonizers care to admit. I can easily see them agreeing to Agency again--just not on Apple's terms. Rather it would be on the same terms they offer indie publishers, who are in fact quite free to set their ebook prices above $9.99 as high as $200.
https://kdp.amazon.com/help?topicId=A301WJ6XCJ8KW0
