When publishers went to Amazon to complain about lower e-book prices, they used Apple as a leverage to get Amazon to listen and make appropriate changes, which resulted in higher e-book prices and a higher revenue share that matched closely to Apple’s 30% revenue sharing deal. However, latest news suggests, this could’ve been a ploy from Apple all along to get Amazon burned along the way. Not that we’d be surprised, but you have to give credit to Apple for being slick in dealmaking, especially when they are working with the toughest of content providers.

While publishers could charge $12.99-$14.99 for certain e-books, Apple made sure it received a heavy discount on bestsellers. That means bestsellers won’t cost you as much in most cases. The company is still taking a 30% revenue cut to sweeten the deal for publishers. It also got a special deal on non-bestsellers based on the hardcover price. Those books, below $26 in hardcover price, could retail for well below $12.99.

It looks like Apple may have burned Amazon into giving in to publisher demands too hastily, but of course, it wouldn’t be Apple if they didn’t try to pull something like this and came out winning while the circus is still going.