Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeD
This is why I hate clauses like the one Apple forced on publishers (most favoured nation). Baen should be free to continue selling books on their own site without the 30% rise to cover Amazons royalties (or whatever the % they have to pay is).
Fine with any other rise they may need to implement to keep their business viable of course. Whether that would put them outside my willing to pay amount, we'll never know. But we should be able to avoid the 30% rise due to Amazons cut if we buy elsewhere.
It's a shame MFN is legal.
Baen managed to offer those books before on their own site at those prices. Prices I was happy to pay and regularly bought from Baen rather than Amazon or other sites because of it (DRM was also a big part of that). Now they can't and I'm not willing to pay the new prices.
I can fully understand why they've needed to make a deal to distribute through Amazon, but it doesn't change the fact that the deal means pricing raises that I'm not willing to pay.
One question remains, will Amazon require Baen implement DRM on their books now? There's been lots of mud slinging in the past where publishers have said they'd like DRM free but Amazon won't allow it and Amazon saying publishers are free to choose.
Will Baen books remain DRM free?
|
THe article said the books would remain DRM free.
Baen may have picked the 9.99 because of what they now have to pay Amazon for the listing--not necessarily because of the Apple fiasco.
ANY time you publish or carry merchandise with any publisher, the contract has something about "competing prices." NO company willingly allows you to undercut them elsewhere. Not even BEFORE the Apple thing did that happen. It's long been in every contract I've signed that I won't undercut prices anywhere. You can offer discount coupons now and then, but your list price has to be the same. THE STORE can offer discounts if it wants to, but as the originator, I have to offer the same list price everywhere.
You saw discounts in the past because the bookstores offered them--but the price of the book was the same on the cover for all stores. So I think the answer is that Yes, Amazon should be able to discount books from Baen.
It's the same thing if I go buy Minus-33 merino wool products from the website versus Amazon. They can't undercut their own list or Amazon and others would not agree to carry their product. When there is a sale, it's offered by the retailer.
As far as the price--I missed that it was only the new stuff at 9.99. I thought anything that wasn't mass-market was going to be 9.99 without thinking through that it meant hardback and then they'd go to mass market. 6.99 is still very reasonable. And the bottom line is that they have to figure out a way to make money or they go away completely. I get that too.