Amazon reducing discounts?

Now that Amazon has snared a major part of the market, the time may have come for greater profit-taking...

Now, that's a scary thought, explored by an article in the New York Times.

As they say, "Now, with Borders dead, Barnes & Noble struggling and independent booksellers greatly diminished, for many consumers there is simply no other way to get many books than through Amazon. And for some books, Amazon is, in effect, beginning to raise prices."       

Or, to put it more precisely, Amazon is reducing the discount on the list price of the book.

So far, it looks as if the reduced discounts apply only to slow-selling titles from more obscure and academic presses, but it could turn into a storewide initiative.

Maybe it has been the plan all along?  As Digital Book World comments, the moment that everyone in the book industry has feared could be nigh.