Publishers probably weren't complaining when Amazon would buy their book at wholesale and take a loss with massive retail discounting. What publishers want is

Publishers probably weren't complaining when Amazon would buy their book at wholesale and take a loss with massive retail discounting. What publishers want is for Amazon to sell at low margin so they get volume and the publishers get each at a decent wholesale price. As a seller on Amazon I have noticed that often people will pay more than the cheapest available, either they don't bother looking elsewhere or Amazon as a brand has grown to the point where people just find it easiest to use them all the time. If this effect holds for books then they no longer have the be the cheapest to drive decent volume.