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You get no debate from me about book pricing being pretty much whatever. But the publishers had established a vibrant market for new books at $25-$30 retail....allowing sellers to give 25% to 40% off as standard practice. The wholesale price was $12.50 or so.
Amazon courting their own authors and selling books on the cheap....is a completely different thing than selling the best seller list at $9.99. It’s also different than having a book or two as loss leaders. Putting the entire NYT's best sellers as loss leaders would destroy the perceived value of a new book.
And it worked. Just listen to all here who scream that $14.99 for a new release book is highway robber when $25 for a new book never was.
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