Amazon vs. Hachette Update - It's About Price

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Amazon emailed a letter to all KDP authors asking them to petition Hachette. Full letter here - http://www.teleread.com/ebooks/amazo...t-negotiation/

And someone responded with this on Twitter:

If it is high school or not seems to have little impact on earnings for either Amazon or Hachette during this dispute.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremygr...never-give-up/

It’s unclear whether readers really care about this business dispute and if they will be motivated by these appeals to join the war of words. Early survey results show some evidence that Amazon has suffered little, if any, damage to its brand throughout the dispute;

[...]

In the latest Hachette earnings report, the company showed growth in book sales due to several best-sellers and downplayed the effects of its fight with Amazon.

[Shane R]

Amazon shot itself in the foot:

Orwell then went on to undermine Amazon’s argument much more effectively than Hachette ever has. “It is of course a great mistake to imagine that cheap books are good for the book trade,” he wrote. “Actually it is just the other way about … The cheaper books become, the less money is spent on books.”

The real problem, the writer argued in an essay a decade later, “Books v. Cigarettes,” was with the books themselves. They had a hard time competing against other media — a point people are still making in 2014.

“If our book consumption remains as low as it has been,” he wrote, “at least let us admit that it is because reading is a less exciting pastime than going to the dogs, the pictures or the pub, and not because books, whether bought or borrowed, are too expensive.”

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/0...inst-hachette/

[Crusader]

Scalzi also has some very interesting remarks:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/08/0...ingly-nervous/

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by TCSimpson

Reading this tells me you really haven't read or clicked links to people's points of view that were contrary to yours throughout this entire debate, that you simply post the same bit of opinion you have.

If you had bothered to read links, you would realize that the change.org letter was penned by indie authors that included Hugh Howey and Joe Konrath. And signed by thousands of indie authors.

If that's what it tells you then methinks you are misreading the tea leaves.

Ok, this is your opportunity to be informative. Why would indie authors care what Hatchette charges for ebooks?

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Shane R

Is this the plain unvarnished truth?

Not exactly, the penny dreadfulls came out during the later half of the 1800's and arguably served the same market as the pulp market. There were many paperbacks dating back that far. Paperback did explode as a mass market device right after WW II, but they had been around for a while.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Scalzi also has some very interesting remarks:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/08/0...ingly-nervous/

Thanks for the link.

[TCSimpson]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

If that's what it tells you then methinks you are misreading the tea leaves.

Ok, this is your opportunity to be informative. Why would indie authors care what Hatchette charges for ebooks?

Because some indie authors care about *gasp* readers getting price gouged for a product that should NOT be costing as much or more than its print variant. Most authors are readers first.

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

. . . the penny dreadfulls came out during the later half of the 1800's and arguably served the same market as the pulp market. . . .

Correct.

Plus, Mudie's lending library, another way to get books cheaply, was tremendously popular. The rise of public libraries killed that business, but then we started seeing bestseller rental shelves in places like pharmacies. Then that business died, at least in the United States, when libraries started buying or leasing multiple copies of current bestsellers.

One of the great things about the book market, going back for centuries, is that readers have a choice of price points. So even if it was true that a new hardback book was far more expensive than a movie ticket, that wouldn't be the right comparison. Until fairly recently, the movie ticket price was what the typical viewer of an uncut, uninterrupted, film paid, whereas the typical reader of an unexpurgated book paid far less than the hardback cover price.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Crusader

Scalzi also has some very interesting remarks:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/08/0...ingly-nervous/

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Thanks for the link.

Yes, thank you as well.

Especially this:

If Amazon fails to get Hachette to bring down its prices on its new releases, than consumers will still be spoiled for choice in the sub-$10 eBook realm.

And also in the comments where someone said it be in indies best interest to side with Hachette to keep prices higher in order to not compete with their lower prices.

That changed my view on things quite a bit.

For me as reader I already decide (or rather did) with my wallet to buy less books than I would like to read. If the big publishers decide to become even more expensive, than that is even less reason to even shop for them when looking for the next book to buy. At least not brand new. I do hope that older titles will still be availlable around $7.50 give or take once the mmpb comes out with whatever new system this round of negotiations brings.

For my household the combination of indies through Kindle Unlimited, OverDrive books that are there without messing with waiting lists, and the very very occasional pre-order of certain ebooks will satisfy all reading needs.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Ok, this is your opportunity to be informative. Why would indie authors care what Hatchette charges for ebooks?

Because Hachette is inflating the value of ebooks

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by TCSimpson

Because some indie authors care about *gasp* readers getting price gouged for a product that should NOT be costing as much or more than its print variant. Most authors are readers first.

I see, so if I understand you correctly, your point is that indie authors read ebooks published by Hachette and think that Hatchette charges too much. Ok, that's fine, but if that's the case then I don't see that them being indie authors is particularly germane. It's hardly a novel point of view and has been presented on this forum many, many times. I was under the impression from your post that there was some unique view point that indie authors had which interested them in Hatchette's contract negotiation with Amazon which was so common that anyone who wasn't aware of it obviously hadn't been keeping up with the debate.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Because Hachette is inflating the value of ebooks

I thought that you didn't pay for ebooks. Isn't your point that any charge at all in inflating the value of ebooks?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I thought that you didn't pay for ebooks. Isn't your point that any charge at all in inflating the value of ebooks?

I don't pay for them; but that doesn't mean any price over free is inflating their value. The reason I don't pay is because there's more than enough free stuff out there to satisfy my wants. If those options dried up, then I'd start paying; slowing inching my way up from $0.99.

[Josieb1]

I follow this lady's blog because it's entertaining. This is her take on the email she got this morning

http://mercyceleste.blogspot.co.uk/2...r-of-2014.html

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

This is her take on the email she got this morning

Does anyone know what the "book warnings" she gets from Amazon might be?