Following a trend in online retailing, Amazon has begun eliminating the list prices on a number of the products it sells, according to a recent report in the New York Times. The practice, which marks a major change in Amazon's strategy, has yet to take hold in any noticeable way in its books section, where Amazon's reduced prices remain a significant draw.

To illustrate the dollar gap between Amazon's book prices and publishers' list prices, we looked at the current top five books on the Publishers Weekly Hardcover and Trade Paperback lists, as of the afternoon of July 5. We've also gathered the current list prices for the top five overall bestsellers for the week ended June 28, 2015, and compared them with Amazon's prices.

The average discount for the top five hardcovers is 36.04%, compared to 35.90% for paperback. For the backlist titles—which vary in format—the average discount is 41.85%.

Hardcover

1. End of Watch by Stephen King (Scribner, 978-1-5011-2974-2)
List Price: $30.00
Amazon Price: $18.00

2. Here's to Us by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown, 978-0-316-37514-6)
List Price: $28.00
Amazon Price: $16.80

3. The Girls by Emma Cline (Random House, 978-0-8129-9860-3)
List Price: $27.00
Amazon Price: $16.20

4. Tom Clancy Duty and Honor by Grant Blackwood (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 978-0-399-17680-7)
List Price: $29.00
Amazon Price: $20.28

5. The Pursuit by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg (Bantam, 978-0-553-39277-7)
List Price: $28.00
Amazon Price: $19.57

Trade Paperback

1. Bay of Sighs by Nora Roberts (Berkley, 978-0-425-28011-9)
List Price: $17.00
Amazon Price: $8.38

2. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (Penguin Books, 978-0-14-310946-4)
List Price: $16.00
Amazon Price: $9.52

3. Cross Kill by James Patterson (BookShots, 978-0-316-31714-6)
List Price: $4.99
Amazon Price: $3.98

4. The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercrantz (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, 978-1-101-87200-0)
List Price: $16.95
Amazon Price: $12.20

5. Cross Justice by James Patterson (Grand Central Publishing, 978-1-4555-8512-0)
List Price: $15.99
Amazon Price: $9.59

Backlist

1. Grey by E.L. James (Vintage, Paperback, 978-1-10194-634-3)
List Price: $15.95
Amazon Price: $11.82

2. Truth or Die by James Patterson and Howard Roughan (Little, Brown, Hardcover, 978-0316407014)
List Price: $28.00
Amazon Price: $13.18

3. Paper Towns by John Green (Penguin, Paperback Movie Tie-In, 978-0-14751-765-4)
List Price: $10.99
Amazon Price: $7.58

4. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins (Riverhead, Hardcover, 978-0-85752-392-1)
List Price: $26.95
Amazon Price: $14.42

5. The Melody Lingers On by Mary Higgins Clark (S&S, Hardcover, 978-1-47674-911-2)
List Price: $26.99
Amazon Price: $12.70