Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Yes, it IS a different arrangement. The fundamental difference is that in the one case Amazon is BUYING the books from the publisher (or wholesaler). They can then legally sell them to whoever they wish.
BoB (or any other eBook store) are NOT "buying books up front" from Ingram, Mobi, etc. - they don't have a "stock" of books which they've paid for and are waiting to sell to you. The transaction is only carried out at the time that the customer buys the book, and it's done directly by Ingram, Mobi, etc, via the BoB (or whatever) server. BoB then pays commission to the distributer for the transaction. ie it's a "direct sale". That is why, for example, you can't buy a Mobi book if Mobi's server is down at the time.
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It is not a direct sale. You have the term wrong. It cannot be a direct sale unless Ingram, Mobi, etc. is the one that processes the credit card charge. And the distributor doesn't get a fee at the time of transaction; it gets the fee monthly or quarterly.