[darryl]

At first when I saw your original post my response was oh no not again. However, it has provoked some interesting discussion. But, like it or not, fairness is in the eyes of the beholder. The main use of cost plus pricing is to ascertain the lowest acceptable price. But we live in essentially capitalist societies where, subject to a few constraints, actual prices are set by competition and supply and demand. Fairness simply doesn't enter into it, except in a very few situations set out in the law. But even where US anti-trust laws are applied, the major remedy is usually to seek to increase competition, sometimes even ordering the break-up of a monopolist.

I found your last post breathtaking. I'm certainly no fan of the large publishers. But they now finally have competition at the retail level. Their share of the ebook market has been declining, and for much of the time since agency they seem to have simply ignored Indies and showed no desire to compete. Not all that surprising as they had no real experience of proper retail pricing. Their first response was to raise prices substantially. But, as I posted earlier, they are now experimenting and certainly have some of the their backlist titles priced so as to compete with Indies. Their strategy at the moment is far from irrational and they are still experimenting. I expect that their ultimate model to maximise their profits may well be to sell the vast majority of their back list at prices competing with Indies. Probably $4.99 to $7.99. They will continue to milk new releases and re-releases for every cent. An extremely rational approach in my view. If you don't like the price you can wait for it to come down, which it eventually will, or perhaps borrow from a library, buy a print copy second hand or borrow a friends copy.