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Originally Posted by Barcey
Yes, I won't be buying books from the publishers that move to the "agency model".
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So if there is an ebook that piques your interest and costs $10, you're going to email the retailer and ask them what pricing model they use?
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Originally Posted by Barcey
The "agency model" is price fixing and against free market principals. It was allowed for a valid business model but what Macmillan is using it for has nothing to do with an "agency model".
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Again, this is not price fixing. "Price fixing," despite the name, is ultimately not about a company setting a specific price; it's about entities that collude in anti-competitive behavior in order to control a market. The publishers are not secretly meeting in a smoke-filled room and collaborating on prices, or saying "Random House will get sci-fi, Macmillan will get the education market" etc. Publishers are not in a cartel who artificially restrict supply in order to boost price (e.g. De Beers and diamonds). McDonald's is not price fixing when it sets national prices for all of its franchises. Nor has the DoJ announced any sort of investigation of Apple, Amazon or the publishers.
And if Macmillan said "we're switching to the agency model and new ebooks will be $10," the term "price fixing" would never have come up.
There is nothing illegal or immoral about the agency model.
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Originally Posted by Barcey
One additional side effect is that I've switch 180 degrees on "piracy". I'm still not going to file share myself but I'm no longer going to criticize people who do. Go nuts! I understand.
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So, let me get this straight.
A new ebook comes out, concurrent with the hardcover. The hardcover officially costs $30, gets discounted to say $15 + $3 shipping and handling. The ebook starts at $15 (no shipping, handling or tax). 1 year later, the trade paper comes out at $12 + $2 s&h, the ebook drops to $10.
This is such terrible behavior that it licenses people to skip out from paying all the people who produced the book, including the author?
The reality is that this is a far more efficient method than the hardcover/paperback method of dynamic pricing. As demand for a book falls, the publisher can adjust the price faster, rather than wait months for a physical object to be produced and distributed.
And have you really not noticed that in a free market society, prices are determined by both supply
and demand? If someone is willing to pay $15 for a new ebook, and you are not, then you get priced out of the market until demand (and therefore price) falls. C'est la guerre.
By the way, how does pirating a title because you think the price is too high fit into "market principles" that you were lauding in your post?
