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by bsder 4344 days ago
> specifically that lowering the price from $15 to $10 lead to a 74% increase in purchases

So, if Amazon takes $5, then whoever provided the book lost money on that deal. (Profit went from $10 to $5 while sales did not double). In fact, if Amazon takes more than about $4, it's a wash (which is actually a loss because some of those 75% more customers would likely have bought the book later at a different price point). If, Amazon takes $3, profit goes up by about 2% maybe 3%, if and only if that 74% increase occurs. If that increase doesn't happen, sucks to be the publisher, but Amazon's profit went up.

If Amazon wants to move more Ebooks, why doesn't Amazon reduce the amount they take? Simple, because it doesn't pay in profit. So, Amazon wants somebody else to eat the price drop. Not exactly altruistic.

All of the arguments about Ebook (less distribution cost, marginal volume cost, etc.) apply MORE to Amazon than the publishers. The publishers at least have to find authors. Amazon does, what, exactly, to justify taking $3 an Ebook? Um, right, it provides the market domination that is effectively a monopoly to the point that it thinks it can dictate pricing to publishers.

3 comments

You also assume that amazon is free to price ebooks however they want provided that they pay the publisher the right amount. They are not. This is one of the reasons that this conflict has developed. Amazon has traditionally been happy to sell many physical books at a loss. They are not permitted to do this with ebooks.
Your math/model doesn't make sense. Business is never altruistic. Amazon justifies 30% because they are the gatekeeper to millions of Kindle users.
Your math assumes Amazon has a fixed fee. Amazon takes a percentage fee.