Amazon warrior?
Amazon UK has promised its Kindle customers that it will fight agency pricing to stop a possible hike in the price of e-books.
The retail giant has made its pledge to customers and asked publishers ‘not to needlessly impose price increases on consumers,' pointing out that publishers that have stuck with the agency model in the US have shifted less books than Amazon's preferred model, according to industry bible, The Bookseller.
The agency model means publishers set the price for their e-books and make all booksellers stick to them, arguably decreasing competition between retailers, which could result in cheaper prices for customers, unlike the traditional wholesale method that lets book sellers set the price of a book.
Amazon has reportedly revealed that publishers who have stuck with the agency model in the US have seen the rate of sales of its e-books drop, to ‘half the rate of growth of the rest of Kindle book sales'.
According to The Bookseller, Amazon sent out an email to its Kindle customers promising to try and keep prices low but could also perhaps be perceived to be declaring war on publishers in the process.
In the email, Amazon wrote that publishers sticking to the agency model: "will raise prices on e-books for consumers almost across the board. For a number of reasons, we think this is a damaging approach for readers, authors, booksellers and publishers alike."
A gaggle of US agency publishers including HarperCollins, Penguin and Macmillan have raised e-book prices and Amazon reportedly said: "we know that these increases have not only frustrated readers, but have caused booksellers, publishers and authors alike to lose sales."
However, the ‘majority' of e-books sold on the site still use the wholesale model. Amazon commented that there is a ‘significant difference' between sales of the two models, which will become increasingly important as up to the end of September it has reportedly sold "more than three times as many Kindle books in 2010 as we did up to the end of September in 2009."
In the email to customers, Amazon reportedly wrote: "In the UK, we will continue to fight against higher prices for e-books, and have been urging publishers considering agency not to needlessly impose price increases on consumers. In any case, we expect UK customers to enjoy low prices on the vast majority of titles we sell, and if faced with a small group of higher-priced agency titles, they will then decide for themselves how much they are willing to pay for e-books, and vote with their purchases."
Industry professionals believe the email will irk booksellers and worry UK publishers mulling whether to shift to the agency model.
