E-Book prices have been fluctuating over the last few months. Most prices have been inching upward, thanks in large part to the iPad and something called the agency model.
Before the iPad came along, publishers would sell their e-books to Amazon at a certain price. Amazon would then turn around and sell those books for whatever price they wanted. Amazon often sold the books for a lower price than they paid, in hopes of driving Kindle sales.
Under the agency model, Amazon isn’t allowed to set their own prices; they must sell it at whatever price the publisher sets. Publishers want to sell their e-books at a higher price because they don’t want them biting into print sales.
It’s all a little confusing, but I found an article that does a pretty good job of summing things up. The bottom line is that readers are paying more money for e-books because publishers are hesitant to try new strategies that may affect the old model.
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