I know I have bought less ebooks since the agency model came into play and a lot of paperback books on Amazon suddenly became three or four dollars less than the Kindle version.<p>I certainly haven't stopped buying them altogether, but when it was priced at ten bucks or less it was in impulse buy territory.
I don't understand why they aren't selling ebooks for the same price as printed books, minus the production costs. That would be fair.<p>Discriminating certain distribution channels might be good for profits, but I think it's clearly unethical.
If you really want to dig deep into how the publishing industry works, how they think, and what the real story is behind ebooks and pricing, check out Mike Shatzkin's blog at <a href="http://www.idealog.com/blog/" rel="nofollow">http://www.idealog.com/blog/</a>
As much as I like Apple and ebooks, it sickens me that they want to charge more than $10 for best selling ebooks. It is an electronic file. I am willing to pay more than $10 for a physical paper book I can hold in my hand, but I can't see spending more than $2-$3 for an ebook. And so I rarely buy ebooks, even though I want to, because I can't see the economics behind doing so.<p>If ebooks are going to be just expensive as paper books then I'm going to buy paper books. Apple and the ebook publishers are just shooting themselves in the foot.
Even better (from the perspective of those suing), it appears that Apple and at least one publisher (Simon and Schuster) might be "cheating" on the agency model:<p><a href="http://theorangeview.net/2011/08/is-simon-and-schuster-cheating/" rel="nofollow">http://theorangeview.net/2011/08/is-simon-and-schuster-cheat...</a><p>As the iBookstore seems to be the only bookstore with this kind of special deal, that certainly adds some evidence pointing towards collusion.
As as side project I helped a friend publish a small book on Amazon for the Kindle. At the time we looked into doing the iBooks Store, but it was not yet open to self publishing.<p>Apple's requirements for pricing were as follows:<p>1. You could set whatever price you wanted. (e.g.: Apple doesn't fix the price at anything specific)
2. If you sell the book electronically elsewhere, you cannot sell it on iBooks Store for more than the price you sell elsewhere.
3. Apple gives you %70 of the sales.<p>I don't see how this is price fixing, nor is it trying to keep the prices higher. You can sell on the kindle for the same amount as the iBooks Store.<p>Amazon's terms:
1. You can set the price as you like.
2. You get a variable cut of the sales (sometimes it is %30 to you, %70 to amazon.)
3. Amazon can change the price if they want and sell your book for less, and pay you less.<p>So, yes, it is true that Amazon can run specials where they sell your book for $0.99 to drive traffic to the store, and when they do it, they do it at your expense.<p>I believe the facts don't support an allegation of price fixing.<p>As to the idea that Apple was "trying to run the kindle out of business", that's an allegation that is true of every instance of competition. If someone prices an android tablet that is competitive with the iPad feature-wise at half the iPad's price, that's "trying to run the iPad out of business" as well. It is what you're doing when you compete for sales, you want all of them to go to you and none to your competitor.
Edited - My comment earlier was worded poorly and did not come across as I was hoping.<p>The price fixing talk did not start with Amazon. It started because when Apple joined the market the publishers where not going to give them the same deal that Amazon had forced on them. So I think Apple wanting to get a piece of the market worked with the publishers and they all set the same pricing. Now it happened so quickly that people think they fixed the price which I agree they did. Instead of each one working with apple to come up with there own pricing.<p><i>This whole price fixing thing came about when Amazon had 95% of the market share and was able to dictate the prices, since they where the only ones selling e-books in large amounts. Now that apple is in the market along with other people Amazon share is at about 55% so they have lost that ability to control the market.</i><p>I do think Apple and the book companies came together to set a hire price and force Amazon to follow suit or risk not having all the books that Apple would have.<p>I do not understand why the books have to cost that much. I agree with NathanKP in that they are just files and the cost to the publisher is almost nothing at all. I know they are wanting to make a profit but I think when you charge more then a paper book something is wrong.<p>Go all e-books with a lot less paper books and call yourself the greenest in the business. I find that a lot of companies are scared of change and I am not sure why. I see change as a great thing that can propel the world in to new and better technology.