Thread: A simple question about the new 'agency' model...
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Old 02-08-2010, 12:38 AM   #7
Pardoz
Which side are you on?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger View Post
3. If the settlement means the agency model, then according to pronouncements, there should be no increase in prices for backlist titles--those currently selling for $6-8. The higher prices should only apply to new titles just out in hardcover.
Hmm...I read the pronouncements rather differently, and assumed that once the new agreement is finalized and in place all Macmillan titles would be sold under the agency model, at Macmillan-set prices, new, backlist, the whole shooting match. Then again trying to figure out what's actually going on here by examining press releases is about as precise a science as haruspicy.

Quote:
The real question is whether they'll correct all the books out there whose prices never got lowered when they should have.
This assumes that according to Macmillan those prices should have been lowered, and we have evidence that they don't believe they should have from Macmillan employees (scroll down to the first comment). The "Kushiel title" referenced there has been available as a $7.99 mmpb since 2004.

Quote:
4. Everyone talks about 50% of "list price," but it's never been clear that "list price" for an ebook meant the same price as hardcover price.
Varies by book, one assumes - it would be lunacy to claim "list price" for a mass-market original was $25, obviously. Amazon lists a "Digital List Price" (defined as "the suggested retail price set by the publisher") and these are all over the place, varying wildly by publisher, format, and how long the book has been out.

On the Macmillan titles I looked at "Digital List Price" was either $14.00 or first-edition sale price (generally hardcover price, in other words, except for a couple of books that launched as oversized/"trade" paperbacks but didn't have a hardcover edition), whichever was higher, regardless of how long the book had been out or in what formats.

Amazon seem to have added some new columns (or at least I never noticed them before). From the listing for Emma Bull's excellent novel Territory:

Digital List Price: $24.95 What's this?
Print List Price: $7.99
Kindle Price: $7.19

This looks to me like preparation for a day when it reads:

Digital List Price: $24.95 What's this?
Print List Price: $7.99
Kindle Price: $24.95

so that their customers lay the blame where it belongs.
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