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When I consider buying a book, I don't know and don't care how much the author will make off the sale. Or the publisher. Or the distributor. Or the retail sales location. That is true for any tangible (non-service) product, not just books. The only thing I care about is "does this seem like a reasonable price, for me, to use it for what I want to use it for?" And my criteria for what is reasonable for me varies day to day, minute to minute. Retailers can't depend on anything when trying to predict if I'll buy the book or not. There may be a few general guidelines they can use - like a novel, any novel, no matter how good it is - is just not going to get me to pay over $25. That's not set in stone, but unless you like betting with odds of 99:1 against, don't count on it.
It is always, "What is this worth to me?" when I decide to buy or not. I have zero concern for what is fair to the folks in the chain that created it. They figured out what they thought was fair when they priced the item. They can price it wherever they want. That's their half of the equation. My half of the equation has to do only with my evaluation of the price in the context of "me", not in the context of "them".
For services purchases, things get turned around. When I go into a restaurant, I look at the price of a potential meal and evaluate that in the context of "me". But once I've ordered it and consumed it, I evaluate what size tip I will leave for the server based on "them". What do I think is reasonable and fair for them based on how much effort I think they put into taking care of me.
I don't tip on book purchases, so those are a "me" context item. Purchase or not is totally at my whim. Zero thought given to whether the price is fair to the creation chain. They had their shot when they priced it, now it's my turn.
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