Amazon vs Hachette

[frahse]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I really do not get how hearsay and speculation that supports the "Amazon is evil" stance is considered evidence, while evidence of BPH's illegal acts and general ineptitude is considered hearsay and speculation.

What? Do you mean that repetition of the same nonsense over and over doesn't convince you?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by frahse

What? Do you mean that repetition of the same nonsense over and over doesn't convince you?

Not here.
I'm still not buying the Phillies as contenders.

[fjtorres]

Hey, here's a french source:
http://www.actualitte.com/economie/l...azon-50368.htm

My high school french is too rusty to trust on this, so Google translate to the rescue!

https://translate.google.com/transla...htm&edit-text=

Hhm, maybe it's google filtering out vitriol, but I see no end of civilization histeria in France.
They do note, though:

But for the first quarter of 2014, the situation is very different: with a turnover of € 393 million , Lagardère Publishing -6.2% unadjusted and - 5.2% on a comparable basis. "This variation is explained by the high level of turnover in 2013 (spectacular success of the Fifty Shades trilogy in France). Note that the turnover of the first quarter of 2014 was stable compared to the same period in 2012, "stated the group. And if the entire first quarter was more suffered the ravages of a dealer decided to put sticks in sales?

More preorders: the editor blinded?
Outside sales bestseller, Amazon could have a particularly detrimental effect. The Digital Reader goes further in this direction in this price war, sales and contract negotiations, what would be the unexpected impact of the removal of the pre-order button? Blind editor on sales forecasts and prospects expect the results of these books ...

The pesky midlist and backlist is of some concern, apparently. And apparently the pre-order button, too.

All, in all, it looks like the Amazon is evil hysteria hasn't crossed the atlantic.

Anybody got a better translation handy?

[Alfy]

Originally Posted by tompe

Amazon is 10 times the size of Hatchette. So it is one big company and one smaller relatively seen. Of course Amazon will win the fight if they want since they have more money.

Actually, if your going by operating revenue, Amazon is close to 8 times bigger than the group that owns Hachette, $74.5 billions against €7.1 billions in 2013. But that hardly reflects the money either can bear on this particular fight. To give you a sense of Lagardère, when the group sold its shares in EADS, after the company had designed the Airbus 380, it went on to distribute €1.3 billions to its shareholders.

Hachette is not David to Amazon's Goliath, however they want to portray themselves as such. It is backed by a family that owns half of the French press and has excellent political connections, and has had no qualms using both against Amazon when fighting on their home ground.

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I really do not get how hearsay and speculation that supports the "Amazon is evil" stance is considered evidence, while evidence of BPH's illegal acts and general ineptitude is considered hearsay and speculation.

But... But... It's AMAZON!!!

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

"The paper of record", remember. They chose which presidents to cover for and which ones to vilify and bring down.

Originally Posted by frahse

In my opinion, it has been that way for many, many years.

Originally Posted by GtrsRGr8

We are hearing really only one side--Hachette's and the liberal, big-business haters in the mainstream media.

I'm kicking myself for not having realized until a day or two ago the extent to which these anti-New York publisher threads may be motivated by politics rather than books.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I really do not get how hearsay and speculation that supports the "Amazon is evil" stance is considered evidence, while evidence of BPH's illegal acts and general ineptitude is considered hearsay and speculation.

Taking the last first, if the big book publishers are so inept, why are are they managing the digital transition so much better than newspapers and non-scholarly periodicals?

Hachette's 2013 profit was the highest, by far, they experienced in the past five years.

And industry leader Bertelsmann had its highest profits since 2006 last year -- largely due to acquisition of the 50 Shades franchise from indiedom. Think how much money that piece of stodgy ineptitude netted. Is this a reason to be on the publishers' side? Of course not. But it does indicate that their business strategies may make some sense.

Amazon may have resolved to push hard against the publishers not because they are stuck in the 20th century, but because publishers have managed the digital transition so well, at least, financially.

As for evil, I wouldn't say that about any of them. But not so nice? Yes.

Amazon and the big five are similarly absent from the best places to work lists. But Amazon is far more likely to get reviews like this:

http://gawker.com/i-do-not-know-one-...zon-1572478351

[jemc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I really do not get how hearsay and speculation that supports the "Amazon is evil" stance is considered evidence, while evidence of BPH's illegal acts and general ineptitude is considered hearsay and speculation.

But what else do the hand-wavers and speculators have except table pounding and making stuff up...

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I'm kicking myself for not having realized until a day or two ago the extent to which these anti-New York publisher threads may be motivated by politics rather than books.

Yeah, maybe these papers should stick to the facts and leave politics out of it

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

I'm kicking myself for not having realized until a day or two ago the extent to which these anti-New York publisher threads may be motivated by politics rather than books.

Or facts rather than emotions.

[ottdmk]

All I know is that I want to avoid a world where Amazon is the only source for e-books I want to read. The combination of their walled garden and their publishing ambitions bothers me. Can't get Ian Flemming anywhere else, for example.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

All I know is that I want to avoid a world where Amazon is the only source for e-books I want to read. The combination of their walled garden and their publishing ambitions bothers me. Can't get Ian Flemming anywhere else, for example.

That's more the Fleming estates fault than Amazons though, they (re)published them themselves, they seem to have subbed the UK rights to Random House so UK readers can get them pretty much anywhere.

[tubemonkey]

Seattle indie bookstore jabs at Amazon, enters Hachette fray with promise to hand-deliver J.K. Rowling’s new novel

Seattle-based independent bookstore Third Place Books said today that it will hand-deliver copies of The Silkworm, a new novel by J.K. Rowling (she wrote the book under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith).

“Third Place Books feels it’s important their customers realize the impact of Amazon pulling buy buttons, and making books unavailable to them has on the bookselling industry,” the company said in a statement. “Third Place Books will be taking this opportunity to emphasize their service and valuable role as a bricks and mortar independent bookstore in the community by taking pre-orders for The Silkworm, offered at 20% off, and delivering them by hand on Thursday, June 19th, Silkworm’s release day.”

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Seattle indie bookstore jabs at Amazon, enters Hachette fray with promise to hand-deliver J.K. Rowling’s new novel

Good for them.
Now let's see them hand-deliver a million copies.
Or even a thousand.

If Hachette really relied on Indies it would be great but any Indie bookstore offering 20% discount is paddling upstream in white water; B&N routinely offers 30% and Walmart 40%. The headline is nice and uplifting but it changes the situation not one bit. All it does is highlight the BPHs' well known favoritism towards bulk peddlers. (Now, if Hachette enabled Indies to price match Walmart, that would be news.)
Anyway, relying on B&M retailers, like the olden days, just means that they are going to lose lots of sales in rural areas and the smaller communities without bookstores.

Lots of announcements lately but little meat, so far.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Good for them.
Now let's see them hand-deliver a million copies.
Or even a thousand.

If Hachette really relied on Indies it would be great but any Indie bookstore offering 20% discount is paddling upstream in white water; B&N routinely offers 30% and Walmart 40%. The headline is nice and uplifting but it changes the situation not one bit. All it does is highlight the BPHs' well known favoritism towards bulk peddlers. (Now, if Hachette enabled Indies to price match Walmart, that would be news.)
Anyway, relying on B&M retailers, like the olden days, just means that they are going to lose lots of sales in rural areas and the smaller communities without bookstores.

Lots of announcements lately but little meat, so far.

I just placed my order on their site. The 20% discount did not appear in the cart--I'm hoping that this was just a mistake, and it will be fixed before my card is charged. There was a place to put comments on the order form, and this is what I put:

According to your promotion shown on this image http://www.thirdplacebooks.com/files...e/silkworm.jpg, I should be getting 20% off of the price of this book. Also, when can I expect you to be hand delivering the book to Connecticut?

Shari

Edited to add: Whoops--they already charged my card. Bad form for them to charge the card for a product that not only hasn't shipped yet, but won't be shipping for 2 weeks!

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Not here.
I'm still not buying the Phillies as contenders.

Now that's a low blow for us people from SE PA!