While Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster have agreed to abandon an agency model for eBook pricing, digital publishing platform Smashwords will continue to use the format to let its users set eBook prices.
Smashwords CEO Mark Coker told eBookNewser: “We intend to vigorously defend agency as a superior pricing model that’s in the best long term interests of authors, readers, retailers and publishers. As my data demonstrates, ebook prices are dropping. If a publisher prices their book too high, let the marketplace punish that author. Our 40,000 authors and publishers at Smashwords price their books just barely over $3.00, and they collectively publish nearly 15,000 ebooks priced at FREE. Agency has been a godsend to our authors and publishers, and it forces our retailers to compete on customer experience rather than the depth of their balance sheets.”
Random House, a publisher which has defended an agency model in the past, but has not been sued by the DOJ, has yet to announce how they plan to deal with agency pricing.