Amazon vs Hachette

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

So Hachette are whining about the fact that Amazon are refusing to discount books out of their cut of the retail price? My heart bleeds for the poor dears. How obvious it is now that Amazon are acting in an evil manner!

Well, it is pretty evil. You make sure you are big enough. Then you discount books to get the customers used to that price. Then you demand that the provider of the books lower there prices and when they do not do it they rise the prices that hurts the authors most. And they can do that because they are so big.

So from my point of view typically evil behaviour. You are using an imbalance in the market that give you the mean to eliminate all competition and when they are gone you can raise the price.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by tompe

Well, it is pretty evil. You make sure you are big enough. Then you discount books to get the customers used to that price. Then you demand that the provider of the books lower there prices and when they do not do it they rise the prices that hurts the authors most. And they can do that because they are so big.

So from my point of view typically evil behaviour. You are using an imbalance in the market that give you the mean to eliminate all competition and when they are gone you can raise the price.

But that's the point...all competition hasn't been eliminated. There's still Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. (There are others, as well, but I think that those are the only other places in the US that Hatchette chooses to sell their books from) If Hatchette would drop DRM, they could even sell Mobi versions of their books on their own site, like Baen and Smashwords do.

Shari

[delph]

You can get Hatchette books from Google Books in the US as well. I just pre-ordered a Hatchette title there (and for less than Amazon had it).

[tompe]

Originally Posted by shalym

But that's the point...all competition hasn't been eliminated. There's still Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. (There are others, as well, but I think that those are the only other places in the US that Hatchette chooses to sell their books from) If Hatchette would drop DRM, they could even sell Mobi versions of their books on their own site, like Baen and Smashwords do.

Of course it has been eliminated in the short run at least. If Amazon have 80% of the market that will not switch fast. Especially not for ebooks since people like to buy the same format they have started to buy. Most people reading ebooks are not like the people here that convert between different formats.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by tompe

Of course it has been eliminated in the short run at least. If Amazon have 80% of the market that will not switch fast. Especially not for ebooks since people like to buy the same format they have started to buy. Most people reading ebooks are not like the people here that convert between different formats.

80% != 100%

Competition has not been eliminated. Those are the cold hard facts, and you cannot get around them.

Come back when Amazon actually has 100% of the ebook market, thus qualifying as an ebook monopoly.

[din155]

Originally Posted by tompe

Of course it has been eliminated in the short run at least. If Amazon have 80% of the market that will not switch fast. Especially not for ebooks since people like to buy the same format they have started to buy. Most people reading ebooks are not like the people here that convert between different formats.

But people also like authors. Won't they switch shops if they don't find books of their favourite authors and it is easy to get books from other shops? I am not sure people if care much about format.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by din155

But people also like authors. Won't they switch shops if they don't find books of their favourite authors and it is easy to get books from other shops? I am not sure people if care much about format.

Especially if they are reading on tablets / smartphones, as it's as easy as using a different app to access books from a different store / in a different format.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by din155

But people also like authors. Won't they switch shops if they don't find books of their favourite authors and it is easy to get books from other shops? I am not sure people if care much about format.

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Especially if they are reading on tablets / smartphones, as it's as easy as using a different app to access books from a different store / in a different format.

Ah, but according to some people you must be imagining the existence of these strange "other shops" you speak of... after all, "[Amazon] eliminate all competition and when they are gone you can raise the price".

[Purple Lady]

Poor Hachette. They're one of the reasons there is less competition. The price fixing put Fictionwise and other shops out of business. I never used to buy ebooks at Amazon because I didn't like the fact that they had a walled garden. I pretty much stopped buying from the big 5 and used the library and bought independent authors. When the discounting was again allowed only Amazon seemed to have the discounts so I started buying there. Kobo has coupons for independent authors, so they are cheaper there.

The publishers wanted to have the price the same everywhere so for others that didn't stop buying like I did Amazon was better because they have good customer service. Too bad publishers - you made your bed, now lay in it. Or is it lie in it?

[DiapDealer]

There is a special kind of irony in hearing so many people/authors taking to social media to tell readers just how easy it is to thwart the evil monopoly by pre-ordering their books from a large and varied list of booksellers (both online and brick & mortar).

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Especially if they are reading on tablets / smartphones, as it's as easy as using a different app to access books from a different store / in a different format.

Bazinga! I buy ebooks from almost all of the major players. Read 'em on one device.

Of course; I'm a genius. The average ebook buying morons are, of course, too dense to follow my lead.

Spoiler:

Please tell me you didn't have to check under this spoiler to figure out that last comment was me being sarcastic?

[jgaiser]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Spoiler:

Please tell me you didn't have to check under this spoiler to figure out that last comment was me being sarcastic?

Spoiler:

Nah... I just like punching spoiler buttons...

[tompe]

Originally Posted by din155

But people also like authors. Won't they switch shops if they don't find books of their favourite authors and it is easy to get books from other shops? I am not sure people if care much about format.

No, you buy another book on the list of books you want to read. I know how to convert formats but I would still not buy a non-Kindle book since I do not want the trouble to convert it. We are also talking about the big mass of book buyers.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by tompe

We are also talking about the big mass of book buyers.

Right. Like I said. The helpless morons. Not the smart ones like us. Who know best.

[din155]

Originally Posted by tompe

No, you buy another book on the list of books you want to read. I know how to convert formats but I would still not buy a non-Kindle book since I do not want the trouble to convert it. We are also talking about the big mass of book buyers.

You mean the same masses who can have ten apps for selfies but can't have two or three different apps to read their favourite authors? And if they don't know it themselves, they won't ask their friend or colleagues?
Hope you are not assuming that people only read on kindles.

[tubemonkey]

My reading is quite simple. I only read free books on Kindle eink devices. Since I don't believe in "must read" literature, there's always something that'll catch my eye on the free list - be it Amazon's catalog or that of the many libraries I belong to.