My publisher has heard this from me loud and clear. Any obstacle to that, like prices that are higher than they need to be, is something I will always be opposed to. An author wants to be read more than anything else. However, I believe in low ebook prices and I have always urged my publisher to keep prices low. If you think the price is too high, try again tomorrow - it might be different.Authors have very little influence in this area. Prices may change from day to day or hour to hour. The bad news is that with the ink barely dry on the settlement, no one knows precisely how it's all going to work. It'll be like hardcover books, where the list price might be, say, $24.95, but it might sell for various lower prices depending on which store you visit, how recent the book is, how well it's selling, and whether there are any special sales or promotions that week.The good news is that the Federal suit is expected to bring lower ebook prices. The publisher will set the retail price, but it's up to the retailer to decide what kind of discount to offer. What's true today may not be true tomorrow, so I will come back to this space from time to time to keep my answer accurate and up to date.As I understand this new settlement, ebook retailers like Amazon will soon be free to set the selling price on ebooks. The lawsuit was recently settled but it could be a long time before we see what its effects will be. I could only be a spectator as these two elephants fought with each other. As you can imagine, with the Federal Government suing my publisher over ebook prices, the author is the last guy to have any say. The publishers were accused of collaborating with each other, and with Apple, to set prices artificially high. Recently the Department of Justice sued the nation's top publishers, including mine - HarperCollins - over this very issue. The price of ebooks is one of the most controversial matters to hit publishing in years.
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