Will Prices Go Back Down?

Great article today on the front page of the (printed) WSJ (here) about the suspected of collusion of Apple and other publishers in the world of e-publishing as it regards pricing of e-books. The article by Thomas Catan and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg titled U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers Justice Department Threatens Lawsuits, Alleging Collusion Over E-Book Pricing is pretty compelling reading for anyone thinking of e-publishing. Some of the passages that stuck with me:

"To build its early lead in e-books, Amazon Inc. sold many new best sellers at $9.99 to encourage consumers to buy its Kindle electronic readers. But publishers deeply disliked the strategy, fearing consumers would grow accustomed to inexpensive e-books and limit publishers' ability to sell pricier titles. Publishers also worried that retailers such as Barnes & Noble Inc. would be unable to compete with Amazon's steep discounting, leaving just one big buyer able to dictate prices in the industry. In essence, they feared suffering the same fate as record companies at Apple's hands, when the computer maker's iTunes service became the dominant player by selling songs for 99 cents."

Smacks of "what's being good for the goose is good for the gander." Isn't what they are describing they feared from Amazon the very thing they had hoped to do themselves? I think they were just beaten to the punch.

I remember that my brother told me about a snippet he read in Steve Job's biography about how Jobs felt that text books were the next big frontier in publishing. How he hoped to break that behemoth and make it more affordable. I think it's telling that Apple alternately wants to make things more free while at other times make them more regulated and restrictive depending on when they gets involved.

"The Justice Department believes that Apple and the publishers acted in concert to raise prices across the industry, and is prepared to sue them for violating federal antitrust laws, the people familiar with the matter said."

Despite the action, I doubt much headway will be made to return to the free for all that occurred just a few years ago. Still, it encourages me to hurry up and get my little novel published. And, I have to say I love my new iPad. It makes editing a joy.