AAR

[jaime]

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/15/opinion/coker-book-publishing/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn

A dark day for readers indeed with another shill for the big publishers pontificating on the web about how it's a-okay for ebooks to be as or more expensive than print books. And how amazon is the big bad wolf while the publishers are the little endangered lambs.

Maybe somebody should explain basic math to Mr Coker - 60 to 70 % of the market share is not a monopoly.

[PatW]

I didn't read this column as a defense of big publishers, quite the contrary. Mr. Coker wants publishers to set prices according to the market and to the benefit of authors.... after all that is what Smashwords is all about. He sounded like he was afraid that throwing out the agency model entirely might have unintended consequences. To him, the agency model refers to a lot more than the "big five" - he was contrasting it to the "wholesale model" ; after all Smashwords is in competition with Amazon. He doesn't want Amazon's practices to force Smashwords into a price war.

Not being an author, I have no idea if Smashwords pays their authors more fairly than other publishers, Mr.Coker certainly implied that with his 70% versus 17.5% remark.
_________________
When in doubt, read.

[jaime]

[Susan/DC]

[graceC]

I still think charging eBooks the same as print books is wrong. I've even seen eBooks that cost more than print books. How screwed up is that?! I understand that authors receive a fix amount of money regardless of book form, but authors' fee is only 1 (and sometimes small) part of the equation. The rest is just publishers' way to make money, IMO.

In a perfect world, price of books should be determined by market demand, but this will only work fairly for everyone (authors, readers, publishers) if the publishers themselves will play fair; and so until that day comes, I will buy books based on what I think is fair price and stand behind Amazon 100%.

[Moriah Jovan]

The agency model of pricing has done more to help indie authors than anything else anybody could have done. Because readers did not want to pay the high prices for ebooks (I have a moratorium on buying agency-priced books), they went searching for other alternatives.

Smashwords has been, quite frankly, a game-changer. Amazon is really rather irrelevant to its existence because it gives indie authors access to retail outlets they would not otherwise have. Amazon is open in ways none of the other retail outlets (except perhaps B&N) Smashwords funnels work to is.

But more importantly than that, Smashwords allows people from everywhere in the world to buy without restriction, geographic or DRM or otherwise. It's been a godsend for people not in the US.

I didn't read the article, but I know Mark very well and he, more than anyone, knows the value of agency pricing to the indie author. The indie author is the one he serves. And I do mean SERVE.
_________________
The Proviso .:. Stay .:. Magdalene

[Tacilija]

I read this article, and it seems to me that he says Agency model is great, it has the potential to improve market, allow more retailers and it should lead big publishers to lower the prices, or adjust them to the market.

He also says that they (the big 5) have not done any of those great things - they are keeping the prices up, they take too long to publish books, they are going for the quick buck (Snookie, Justin Bieber) and all of this caused great expansion of indie publishing - authors taking care of things that used to be in publisher's domain (editing, cover design, marketing) and doing it quickly.

How in the hell did he get to the conclusion that agency model is so wonderful?? It obviously hasn't worked - the way he thinks it should - so far, how much more time does he think it needs???

And one more thing - how come amazon monopoly = bad, but Apple monopoly = good?