All The Many Ways Amazon So Very Failed the Weekend

[nick101]

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/0...d-the-weekend/

[Tim32127]

Originally Posted by nick101

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/02/0...d-the-weekend/

Thank You, That was the best one I've read yet.
Tim...

[milaru]

of all the blog posts from authors you picked the least informed, and most arrogant, of them. Why for the love of god does this man get credit for anything, let him go back to consulting for the rotting corpse of stargate and writing about elves or whatever he does. There are dozens of more informed writers blogging about this like adults.

[TallMomof2]

After reading that blog, I just removed Scalzi from my "To Read" list. I kept waiting for something to indicate it was a joke or sarcasm. Ugg.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

After reading that blog, I just removed Scalzi from my "To Read" list. I kept waiting for something to indicate it was a joke or sarcasm. Ugg.

That's a shame I love Scalzi's books and would probably never dismiss a book because i agree disagree with its author about political/professional/personal issues.
eg orson scott card and his anti gay stuff, pratchett and his thoughts on assisted suicide etc etec

I didn't see anything particularly bad in there, was it something in particular?

[TallMomof2]

Mostly it was how Scalzi talked about how Amazon messed up and the attitude that came across to me. Without visual cues it's very difficult to read tone but the more I read the less I cared for the author. The more I read about MacMillan the more I object to their strong arming the retailers/distributors into what I consider price fixing. Did you know that MacMillan does not allow their ebooks in public libraries? That alone erases doubt that I had that this is simply a ploy to prop up print books.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Mostly it was how Scalzi talked about how Amazon messed up and the attitude that came across to me. Without visual cues it's very difficult to read tone but the more I read the less I cared for the author. The more I read about MacMillan the more I object to their strong arming the retailers/distributors into what I consider price fixing. Did you know that MacMillan does not allow their ebooks in public libraries? That alone erases doubt that I had that this is simply a ploy to prop up print books.

I think the public library thing is different to here as in the UK you could just buy a book and put it in the library and our libraries accept donations too so that couldn't be an issue here.

Have you read his other posts on the manner and also take into account that he is a professional writer with a blog that is very successful(it in fact was successful way before he was recognised as an author.)

And as someone trying to have a successful blog exagerating and having a strong opinion is what creates hits and links.

he actually generally seems like a pretty good guy and his books are the best I have read since some of the greats, Asimov, Heinlen etc

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

After reading that blog, I just removed Scalzi from my "To Read" list. I kept waiting for something to indicate it was a joke or sarcasm. Ugg.

Scalzi does come off as an ass (IMO) regularly on his blog. I had to stop reading it in order to keep enjoying his published work (which I have, for the most part).

[jmaloney]

Originally Posted by stustaff

I think the public library thing is different to here as in the UK you could just buy a book and put it in the library and our libraries accept donations too so that couldn't be an issue here.

It's the same here in the US. But TallMomOf2 was talking about e-books, which is entirely different. You can't just buy and e-book and donate it to the library, unfortunately.

I don't see what's wrong with Scalzi's post. Putting aside whether you agree with Amazon vs. Macmillan's in regard to pricing (consumers want lower prices, naturally), Amazon acted like a petulant child who took his ball back because the other kids weren't playing the way he wanted to. Do they have a legitimate reason to disagree with Macmillan? Sure. But they way they handled it was awful. A lot of that could have been mitigated by simply coming out at the beginning and saying "Hey, we're removing Macmillan books from our site because we disagree with the pricing structure they want to implement, and we think you consumers deserve better." They kinda, sorta, did that later on, but by then it was too late.

[wallcraft]

Scalzi's latest post, A Call For Author Support asks his readers to buy Macmillan authors from other sites and stores, since Amazon is still boycotting Macmillan. I agree that authors, like readers, got caught in the cross fire but with the exception of new releases I would not expect this to have a lasting impact on sales of paper books.

[Lemurion]

Here's what happened:

Amazon prevented consumers from buying books they wanted. This hurts consumers and authors. Amazon hurt John Scalzi and he and other authors did not take kindly to being hurt.

I don't necessarily agree with everything in Macmillan's proposal, but the idea of paying $15 for the e-books of new release hardcovers and $6 for the e-books of backlist paperbacks doesn't bother me. I won't pay $15 for all e-books, but there are some I will - same as with print authors. I can wait until the price drops to what I'm willing to pay for the rest.

Under the Macmillan plan, no one has to pay more than $10 for an e-book if they don't want to. You just can't buy the e-book on the same day as the hardcover release for $10.

If you want first crack at the latest Baen release by one of their bestselling authors in e-book form, you get the E-Arc for $15. If you don't want to pay that, you wait and either buy the single for $6 or get the bundle in webscriptions.

Macmillan's plan sounds suspiciously similar. They're just stretching it over more time and being more granular with intermediate price points.

[milaru]

yet another reason why Scalzi is misguided in the whole thing. Calling for the support of Macmillian who is rapidly trying to screw their writers seems to be about par for the course for the guy. He doesn't seem interested in fixing the problem, he wants to sell books, but he doesn't get that his publisher is more interested in hurting his book sales than actually letting their product be sold.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by milaru

yet another reason why Scalzi is misguided in the whole thing. Calling for the support of Macmillian who is rapidly trying to screw their writers seems to be about par for the course for the guy. He doesn't seem interested in fixing the problem, he wants to sell books, but he doesn't get that his publisher is more interested in hurting his book sales than actually letting their product be sold.

Macmillan isn't trying to screw their writers: Amazon is trying to pull a Wal-Mart and screw everyone upstream of them in the supply chain; including both publishers and authors.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I don't necessarily agree with everything in Macmillan's proposal, but the idea of paying $15 for the e-books of new release hardcovers and $6 for the e-books of backlist paperbacks doesn't bother me.

What may bother Amazon the most is the loss of the ability to discount ebooks, because large stores can do this more effectively than small stores. On the other hand it isn't actually clear that this will be the case (is this really an agency relationship?) and there may be work-arounds (e.g. rebates like Books on Board and FictionWise use).

[milaru]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Macmillan isn't trying to screw their writers: Amazon is trying to pull a Wal-Mart and screw everyone upstream of them in the supply chain; including both publishers and authors.

Selling the same product for more money and giving less to the authors sure doesn't sound like not trying to screw the writers, especially on a product that can be essentially reproduced for nothing. But hey, if you price it high enough that it won't sell, you don't have to worry about how much you pay the writers, you can blame amazon for it not selling rather than your screwing of consumers, and the format the publisher wants dead might even stagnate.

and trying to compare this to wal mart is pretty far fetched, Amazon wasn't trying to dictate what Macmillian sold books to them for and forcing them to cut back on their already lackluster ebook support in order to hit a price goal.