MacFlaunt

The future of the $9.99 e-book is in danger. A third major publisher, Hachette, is going for Apple’s agency model in order to sell e-books for up to $14.99 apiece, the company revealed in a memo to agents.

Following Amazon’s public dispute over e-book prices with Macmillan early this week, Hachette is also seeking a shift to the agency model, which allows the publisher to set the price for the e-book, while the retailer keeps 30 percent of the sales.

Hachette follows a similar move by HarperCollins, whose owner Rupert Murdoch was quoted saying during an earnings call that “We don’t like the Amazon model of $9.99 . We think it really devalues books and hurts all the retailers of hardcover books …And now Amazon is willing to sit down with us again and renegotiate.”

In the memo to agents, Hachette claims that it is “not looking to the agency model as a way to make more money on e-books. In fact, we make less on each e-book sale under the new model; the author will continue to be fairly compensated and our e-book agents will make money on every digital sale.”

The $9.99 e-book price point is clearly the hot topic for this start of the year. Two out of five major publishers already denounce the Amazon model, and a third is pushing price renegotiations. Will the other two major publishers, Penguin and Simon & Schuster follow suit? Most probably.

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