But even with fixed prices, books _are_ cheap. Pocket editions here are the price of a cigarettes pack, something a lot of people even not rich afford once or more a week. I don't think affordability is a problem.

I'm sure how it compares, but here it's $5 USD for a book you'll finish in 15-30 minutes. I find that to be _very_ expensive and I have a great job. So expensive that I've given up on buying and I always go to the library or use a subscription service.

I think that a free market would actually lead to steeply rising prices. It's a seller's market, especially for the popular titles. Occasionally you might see some price wars from publishers pushing others out of the market, but between those, the average book price is not going to go down.