Amazon says 'will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms'

[lilac_jive]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The strange part about this entire episode is that publishers are going to be making less money from ebooks and authors are going to be making much less money from ebooks under the new setup. It is authors that the publishers are screwing the most. Amazon is most likely going to make significantly more profit from ebooks than before. Almost all the extra money that Kindle customers will be paying for ebooks will be going to directly to Amazon's bottom line.

This is what I don't understand. Were they trying to pitch it to Amazon that they would make more money? Why would the publishers want a deal that makes them and their authors LESS money? What's the motivation? Something doesn't add up (at least for me).

[rwizard]

I have thought about getting an iPhone and an iPad at some point, but I have decided that I do not want to support Apples attempt to help publishers fix prices in addition to not liking that both platforms are designed to only allow you to install Apple approved applications. The only problem is that I actually like AT&T and they do not sell any android phones But I am tired of Apples tactics in the mobile device market. So while it may make little difference (I doubt Apple is going to miss my purchase), I will be looking at alternatives.

[Sonist]

When the labels were pushing for $2+ per song prices a year and a bit ago, Jobs pointed out that piracy will skyrocket again, if prices go up that much.

I'd imagine we'll see a lot of Macmillan titles floating around. For free.

[rwizard]

Oh, and for the record, I don't care for Amazon either personally. But they were already not getting my money.

[fiver]

I for one won't buy any more apple products since it seems they had a significant role in bringing the e-book pricing discontent to a head - of course that doesn't really mean much since the only apple product I've bought was the ipod and the last one of those I bought was crap anyway.

Macmillan is only the first if Amazon caves - so I will be buying significantly less e-books than I did last year, and probably from other places like Baen.

It's not my fault or Amazon's fault if authors can't make money from their product. I shouldn't be paying hardcover prices for a more restrictive product - and hardcover prices themselves are ridiculous considering the quality of most hardbacks. I think 9.99 is reasonable for fiction...I will pay more for technical e-books and maybe a couple bucks more for other non-fiction e-books. Back catalog titles should NOT be 9.99 though.

There's WAY too much entertainment competition that the book publishers are just shooting themselves in the foot by doing this

[Lemurion]

I'm taking the minority view: Amazon was very much in the wrong in how they handled this situation.

Macmillan has the right to say "this is how we want to sell e-books through your site," and give Amazon the options they did: which were to either continue on the existing model with delayed release or go to the new model. Amazon has every right to either accept one of those two options or to choose not to sell Macmillan e-books.

Instead, Amazon not only pulled Macmillan e-books but also pulled the dead tree editions. It's that tactic that really created the backlash in the author community; not only did it hit them in the pocketbook, but it brought a private dispute into the public eye.

As to Amazon's charges that Macmillan is a "monopoly," as has been stated elsewhere, that's the whole freaking point of copyright. The authors and their licensors (in this case the publishers) are supposed to have a time-limited monopoly over the books on their list. It's just another cheap shot from Amazon PR.

I don't care so much whether new release hardcovers are $15 or $10 in e-book; both prices are more than I would normally pay. What I want to see are books that are currently available in mass market paperback priced no higher than mass market paperbacks (I'd prefer lower than paperback but I'll settle for paperback). If Macmillan follows through with their stated plan of dropping prices over time I may start buying Macmillan e-books. If they don't, I won't.

What I don't want to do is continue to support a company that treats their customers and suppliers the way Amazon did in this situation.

I know it's not the most common attitude here, but it's mine.

[Mr. Goodbar]

This will definitely be interesting to watch over the coming months. I can certainly understand the publishers concern about lower pricing, but if they would just get off their butt and fix their business model they would probably find they could make significantly more money by embracing ebooks as aggressively as possible.

What will happen to them when more authors start to go the self publishing or Amazon as publisher route? I can't help but think that contract editing services could become a real growth business over the next few years. Most of what seems to be coming from the big houses recently has definitely dropped in quality by a significant amount. I'm finding much more enjoyment reading books coming from less well known authors over the past year or so.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

What I don't want to do is continue to support a company that treats their customers and suppliers the way Amazon did in this situation.

I know I just hate it when a retailer tries to sell to me at a lower price!

It will be interesting to see if the other publishers try to roll readers too.

[rwizard]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I'm taking the minority view: Amazon was very much in the wrong in how they handled this situation.

Macmillan has the right to say "this is how we want to sell e-books through your site," and give Amazon the options they did: which were to either continue on the existing model with delayed release or go to the new model. Amazon has every right to either accept one of those two options or to choose not to sell Macmillan e-books.

Instead, Amazon not only pulled Macmillan e-books but also pulled the dead tree editions. It's that tactic that really created the backlash in the author community; not only did it hit them in the pocketbook, but it brought a private dispute into the public eye.

As to Amazon's charges that Macmillan is a "monopoly," as has been stated elsewhere, that's the whole freaking point of copyright. The authors and their licensors (in this case the publishers) are supposed to have a time-limited monopoly over the books on their list. It's just another cheap shot from Amazon PR.

I don't care so much whether new release hardcovers are $15 or $10 in e-book; both prices are more than I would normally pay. What I want to see are books that are currently available in mass market paperback priced no higher than mass market paperbacks (I'd prefer lower than paperback but I'll settle for paperback). If Macmillan follows through with their stated plan of dropping prices over time I may start buying Macmillan e-books. If they don't, I won't.

What I don't want to do is continue to support a company that treats their customers and suppliers the way Amazon did in this situation.

I know it's not the most common attitude here, but it's mine.

Personally, I think that disputes between companies that are going to affect consumers should be in the public view more often. If this was not brought to the public view, allot of people would be wondering why Amazon was not doing $9.99 best sellers any more in some cases.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by Mr. Goodbar

What will happen to them when more authors start to go the self publishing or Amazon as publisher route? I can't help but think that contract editing services could become a real growth business over the next few years. Most of what seems to be coming from the big houses recently has definitely dropped in quality by a significant amount. I'm finding much more enjoyment reading books coming from less well known authors over the past year or so.

Exactly! What a perfect argument for an author to skip the publisher and sell directly through Amazon.

[Mr. Goodbar]

It would be interesting to watch the pirate trend in Macmillan titles before and after this process. Will this drive greater pirate activity........it would certainly seem probable. The publishers certainly have the right to charge what they want for their books and consumers have the right to vote by buying or not buying their titles. I'll probably vote with my wallet by not buying any of their titles, waiting until they reduce the ebook price or by just getting them at the library if I really want to read them. I'm sure we'll see a great Harvard Business Review analysis of this in the next few years.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by Connallmac

I know I just hate it when a retailer tries to sell to me at a lower price!

It will be interesting to see if the other publishers try to roll readers too.

Score one for missing the point.

I would prefer to pay no more than Baen prices for e-books. However, when Amazon pulled all the Macmillan dead tree books from their site they played dirty pool. That is the behavior I do not want to support.

[Connallmac]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Score one for missing the point.

I would prefer to pay no more than Baen prices for e-books. However, when Amazon pulled all the Macmillan dead tree books from their site they played dirty pool. That is the behavior I do not want to support.

So Macmillan has the right to say that this is how much we want to charge for our product, but Amazon doesn't have the right to not sell it in protest? This is awfully twisted logic you're using....

[rwizard]

If I were an author with Macmillan, I would want a look at the new contract with Amazon. If I understand correctly, Macmillan's will be getting the full price of the ebook and paying Amazon a percentage for their service instead of selling to Amazon and letting Amazon decide how much to charge when they resell it. If this is the case, depending on what the contract is that the author has, they may be able to get their percentage on the full price the ebook sold for instead of what Amazon "bought" it fore.

Not knowing enough about contracts with either party, I don't know if this is relevant. Just something to think about.

[Carmelreader]

And there is always the Library.