Quote:
Originally Posted by Connallmac
Sure, but originally Amazon was subsidizing best-selling books from popular authors. As I recall they were offering many NY Times best sellers for $9.99 or less.
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The situation is actually very simple. Amazon does offer many cheaper reasonably priced ebooks. Amazon was indeed offering best selling Big 5 ebooks for $9.99. However, the price fixing conspiracy entered into by certain publishers with Apple deprived Amazon of any control over the prices of the books of those publishers. Yes, the DOJ and the courts intervened, but the die was already cast. All of the publishers concerned went back to "agency pricing" as soon as the settlement allowed them to. Amazon does not set these prices. Amazon cannot discount these books. The blame for this belongs squarely with the Publishers who set their prices so high. Outside of the Big 5 there are many far more realistically priced ebooks available, not only from self-published authors and Amazon imprints, but also from more adaptable and innovative traditional type publishers who actually offer their authors a much fairer deal. I don't buy ridiculously priced Big 5 ebooks. If you don't like what is going on you should not either. There are some great Indie authors out there, and for those few overpriced books you really want to read, borrow from the library, borrow from a friend, buy a second hand paper copy or find some other legal alternative.