But take note: As Reuters reports, neither Amazon nor Penguin will officially disclose the terms of the deal yet.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":186638,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,mobile,social,","session":"B"}']“A few weeks ago Penguin, owned by Pearson, stopped providing its new titles. Amazon in return dropped the prices of some of those same physical hardback titles to US$9.99 for delivery to homes … A Penguin spokeswoman would not comment on the specific terms of the deal. A spokesperson for Amazon was not immediately available.”
Publishers in general have been trying to institute what’s called an “agency model” for e-books, in which the publisher sets the price and the seller, such as Amazon, must sell at that price in exchange for a cut. Apple has agreed to agency model selling for its iBooks program for the iPad tablet. In general, publishers want to charge $12.99 and up for popular books, while Amazon wants to charge $9.99 in order to drive Kindle sales.
Ironically, the iPad’s arrival has meant higher prices, not lower, because Amazon no longer has a near monopoly of e-books sales and therefore can’t dictate its loss-leader prices.
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