Quote:
Originally Posted by Barcey
It's also true that they've already taken the PR hit from the smear campaign so there's an argument that if you've already paid the price you might as well hold out.
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Ding! Ding! Ding!
Exactly.
Hachette and friends have already done their worse.
Other than pulling their books, Hachette has no more cards to play.
That is why I hope they do it.
Amazon still has moves but Hachette painted themselves into a corner by going public.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barcey
I don't buy from either of them though so I can just watch and laugh.  |
I haven't bought a single BPH title since the conspiracy kicked in. In doing so I verified my expectation that there is ample quality outside BPH land.
I don't pretend to be in the majority but as the KKR piece properly points out, true fans are rare.
So any expectation that Amazon customers are going to be aggrieved and stop buying there, en-masse, is sheer wishful thinking because people don't go to Amazon just to buy books or TVs or groceries or any of their thousands of products. They go to save money and time.
Odds are, that if Hachette pulls all their books, Amazon's financials will reflect a 24.8% year over year growth instead of 25%. And Amazon's indie authors will be laughing all the way to the bank because a good chunk of Hachette sales come from Amazon's alsobots and promos which will be aimed at indies and the other tradpubs. Anybody remember how RH made a killing on Amazon in summer 2010 because their books were the only BPH titles Amazon could discount? And because Penguin took months to set up their agency deal. That precendent says the customers won't walk; they'll just buy different books, for the most part. (Or they'll buy DVDs or console games instead.)
Hachette and supporters like to pretend all their sales at Amazon are from people who go there just to buy *their* titles, that Amazon does nothing to earn their share of the sale price other than take the orders and ship out the boxes, that Amazon brings no value to the distribution chain, and they should be happy to accept what Hachette grandly offers up. Yet, at the same time, they complain that Amazon is hurting their sales by not discounting their titles enough, not promoting them enough, not warehousing enough of them.
The Hachette supporters fail to acknowledge that Amazon isn't just a customer of Hachette (buying books to resell) but also a supplier of services to Hachette: warehousing, marketting, promotion, and distribution. (B&N, too.) And that they are entitled to charge for their services. All the talk of Amazon extortion and blackmail pretends the negotiation is about Amazon trying to take money for doing nothing.
Well, this Ayn Rand-ish slowdown Amazon has staged proves they actually do something of value to earn their share of the loot. Once the PR angst fest is over they can get back to dickering over the price of those prices.
So, no Amazon customers aren't walking over this and the promo efforts that Amazon is diverting to other titles will very likely make up for most if not all of the lost business that might go to Walmart or B&N.
And, BTW, what happens to Hachette when it's time to negotiate with Wal-Mart and B&N if Amazon isn't selling their pbooks?
I'm not sure, but I doubt it'll be pretty.