Finally, if fans buy from our web site rather than Amazon or at a conventional retail outlet, Bill will receive a significantly increased share of the cover price because it effectively cuts out the chain of distribution, retail and the high discounts they demand (Amazon traditionally want 60 per cent of cover price as its cut, for example). “
The big story during the dotcom boom was about the frictionless marketplace, but that was actually a red herring: the goal was reduce friction caused by others, to be the sole remaining friction, ie, to cut as many others out of the chain as possible.
This makes me wonder how many books, etc. we may not know about because of Amazon’s reach and power: the small seller may be unwilling to send 60% of the take to Amazon rather than the artist and there may never be enough volume to make it worthwhile. As noted earlier, efficiency isn’t the most important thing all the time.