DOJ accuses Apple and other publishers of price fixing e-books

[exboyfil]

7. The amazoning thing is seeing a book for $15.99

when a very good + used copy is going for $4.00 ($.01 + $3.99 in shipping).

I can understand charging a premium for a new book. The newness has value (I am the first to read A Dance with Dragons for example), but they need to soon start dropping their price. When the used hard copies start flooding the market, they need to start dropping their own prices.

What I am waiting for is to find out what publishers actually bring to the party. The internet will lead to more and more authors marketing their books directly. I would have to think publishers must be scared to death. Eventually we might be seeing groiups of authors getting together to do their own website/marketing. Then the more famous authors will become what they hate - publishers taking a piece of action from new authors (they already do this by lending their name to others work).