(Edited to clarify reference to human readers vs devices that are also called "readers.")
It helps by setting the price at something closer to reality. Publishers are willing to take the reduction in what they are paid because they do, indeed, expect to make it up via new efficiencies in the system.
The problem with the $9.99 hardcover ebook (that is, an ebook released at the same time as the hardcover) from Amazon is that the price is artificial. Amazon is subsidizing the cost of the book for the (human) reader.
This will force every other retailer to subsidize the price for their (human) readers, except that they aren't making back that money on the sale of ebook (device) readers. B&N can't price like that, because the Nook doesn't move as many units as the Kindle.
Long-term end result is that sales of the Kindle eventually slow to a steady rate that is no longer sufficient to continue subsidizing the ebook prices. And then the price of ebooks goes right up to where the actual costs would put it.
You'll be paying the higher price one way or another, sooner or later. Publishers are trying to prevent Amazon from creating the equivalent of a toxic waste dump that has to be cleaned up later.
It helps by setting the price at something closer to reality. Publishers are willing to take the reduction in what they are paid because they do, indeed, expect to make it up via new efficiencies in the system.
The problem with the $9.99 hardcover ebook (that is, an ebook released at the same time as the hardcover) from Amazon is that the price is artificial. Amazon is subsidizing the cost of the book for the (human) reader.
This will force every other retailer to subsidize the price for their (human) readers, except that they aren't making back that money on the sale of ebook (device) readers. B&N can't price like that, because the Nook doesn't move as many units as the Kindle.
Long-term end result is that sales of the Kindle eventually slow to a steady rate that is no longer sufficient to continue subsidizing the ebook prices. And then the price of ebooks goes right up to where the actual costs would put it.
You'll be paying the higher price one way or another, sooner or later. Publishers are trying to prevent Amazon from creating the equivalent of a toxic waste dump that has to be cleaned up later.
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