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@Cinisajoy. Thank you. You caught me out there. I hadn't heard of Amazon forcing anyone to put their book on sale, but then again I haven't published anything myself so I'm not that familiar with the details of their terms. One relevant clause is:
"5.3.4 Customer Prices. To the extent not prohibited by applicable laws, we have sole and complete discretion to set the retail customer price at which your Digital Books are sold through the Program. We are solely responsible for processing payments, payment collection, requests for refunds and related customer service, and will have sole ownership and control of all data obtained from customers and prospective customers in connection with the Program."
This is the sort of thing you expect from a large corporation. When confronted and asked to change a clause like this to exclude the unilateral ability to set the retail price the response from most companies is invariably we insist on having it but we never use it, or it is only for extreme situations. Which may be true now, but what of the future? I can well see why Amazon wants such a clause, but quite frankly I am disappointed that Amazon insists on the power to do so unilaterally and without consent, even if they don't use it.
I have no problems with royalties based on the actual selling price but not when combined with the effect of this clause. This policy is a fail for both Amazon and Google. Google apparently use it? Do Amazon?
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