Quote:
Originally Posted by phenomshel
Ok, but a point everyone seems to be missing is this: This wouldn't have had nearly the impact it did if Macmillan had distributed their author's works (in ebook formats) to places BESIDES Amazon. I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone as to whether this is due to Amazon demanding exclusivity or Macmillan being negligent of their author's interests.
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The answer is almost certainly "Macmillan being negligent of their authors' interests" (at least if you count "publishing those authors' books" as being in the authors' interests). When the titles go back up check what format the files are (if you didn't already know this trick, look at the book description: if it lists a file-size, it's in .mobi format, if it doesn't list a file size, it's in Topaz format). If the books are available as Topaz files, that means Amazon created the e-book themselves (via scan and OCR) because Macmillan refused to distribute an e-book version but grudgingly allowed Amazon to create one. This is why the only commercial e-book versions of a lot of books currently in contract to Macmillan are only available from Amazon, and why the quality of so many of them is so poor, since OCR is still a far-from-perfect technology.