"Publishers (often) earn more with wholesale than agency

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by Top100EbooksRank

You will make a bit more money in the short term, but in the medium term Amazon will tell you they will be paying you 70% of $9.99. They have shareholders too.

Amazon is paying $12.50 (for a $25 hardcover).

Amazon is demanding to pay only $6.99 (70% of 9.99 quoted above).

How likely is that going to happen from $12.50 to just $6.99?

The publishers are not without strength. They could tell Amazon to "**** off" and withhold all their books. The publishers then sell the DRM free mobi format to every other stores other than Amazon.

B&N
Googleplay
KOBO
Sony
Facebook
the author website

etc...

If the publishers coordinate that, this would be collusion too, right?
In a world where Amazon has 80 per cent of the. Market, withholding books from Amazon means courting financial ruin. It would be a big risk, even if you could get past the collusion thing and the cost of converting to drm free mobi.


I think what's inevitable is that the publishers will move to opening their own stores where they'll set their own prices.

[charlesatan]

Originally Posted by crossi

Sure there is an alternative. Sell mobi format books without DRM at Barnes & Noble.

People outside of the US and Canada can't buy them.

[charlesatan]

Originally Posted by crossi

Very true. Even if 80 or 90% of all ebook owners had Kindles the publishers could still sell their books to kindle owners without Amazon by simply dropping their insistance on DRM and making their books in all formats available everywhere. If they insist on enabling vendor lock-in I have no sympathy. The cure is up to them and doesn't include illegal collusion to fix prices.

But for me, the appeal of the Kindle is its integration to Amazon's store (DRM or otherwise). A lot of casual users won't bother sideloading the eBook into their device (I mean us techies will, but whether majority of the user base will is another matter.)

[charlesatan]

I also want to mention that before the publishers went Agency model, Amazon was only giving 35% royalties to publishers (self-published or otherwise), within a certain price point.

A few days separate from Apple's launch of iBooks, Amazon increased the royalties to 70%, within certain regions (if you buy a book here in the Philippines, you still get 35%) and within certain price points ($2.99 ~ $9.99).

And beyond the $9.99 price point, Amazon actually dictates the terms (less royalties and certainly less profitable than setting the eBook price at $9.99... that's why the Baen eBook Bundles aren't available at Amazon, because it stops being profitable for Baen under Amazon's terms) so they have influenced the price of eBooks in the market.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by crossi

Very true. Even if 80 or 90% of all ebook owners had Kindles the publishers could still sell their books to kindle owners without Amazon by simply dropping their insistance on DRM and making their books in all formats available everywhere. If they insist on enabling vendor lock-in I have no sympathy. The cure is up to them and doesn't include illegal collusion to fix prices.

Like your thinking Crossi!!