The publishers tried to collude to raise prices over $10, to $14 or $15. According to this data, had they succeeded they would have reduced ebook profits.
The data here supports the idea that the company doing the most to maximize ebook profits was — brace yourself — Amazon.
Think about it, Amazon tried to make $10 the standard price for an e-book, the price which this article suggests maximizes author profit. And ironically, many authors excoriated them, and sided with the publishers who wanted to damage their income.
As I wrote back in 2010, I suspect Amazon did the market research and discovered for themselves where the peak on the profit curve was and set their standard e-book price accordingly. They’re not dumb.
