Two things I noted --
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Generally e-book editions of hardcover new releases will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99; a few books will be priced higher and lower. This is a tremendous discount from the price of the printed hardcover books, which generally range from $28.00 to $24.00.
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First of all, this is completely disingenious because retailers (and Amazon in particular) do not sell books at the listed hardcover price. The actual sales price of a typical new release hardcover at Amazon is $15. The implication he was making, that $14.99 is still a substantial discount over hardcover prices, is completely bogus.
More importantly, if I have a choice betweeen a Macmillan published ebook at $14.99 and a Random House ebook at $9.99 take a guess at which one I will buy — and I buy a lot of books.
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Rather than address the long-term or author royalty consequences of the change (I’ll save that for next time)...
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I don't blame him for not wanting to talk about royalty consequences. Authors make no royalties on books that us customers now refuse to buy, and when a customer does buy an ebook through the “agency” model the author makes far less than they would have under the “retail” model. Plus Macmillan already pays its authors less for ebook royalties than the rest of the industry. Why any author capable of switching to another publisher would stay with Macmillan is beyond me.