Hachette becomes the third major publisher to pressure Amazon for higher ebook prices

Amazon must feel like a punching bag, repeatedly absorbing blows from book publishers who with each successful strike are raising e-book prices and eroding Amazon’s pricing stronghold in the ebook market. The latest publisher to join in this carnage is Hachette who is pushing Amazon to raise e-book prices to the new industry standard of a $12.99-$14.99 price point set by Steve Jobs and friends with the introduction of the iPad. Hachette is one of the “Apple Five” and the third to seek a price increase from Amazon in the week following the iPad’s announcement. When all is said and done, the $9.99 e-book price model will soon be obsolete and Amazon must find another way to innovate if it wants to retain its lead as the best selling e-reader on the market, because its price advantage is going out the window.

Read