Amazon pulls MacMillan?

[MerLock]

Has anyone started a poll about what one would consider to be a fair price on ebooks? I'm curious to see what other people think is a fair price to pay for them.

[jennstall]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

Don't know if it was Apple or the RIAA, but I certainly recall running into "The product you have chosen is not available in your country" when iTunes first started up. Haven't tried to shop there in years, no idea if it still happens.

It still happens. An album recently released in the UK was not available in the US iTunes store so I switched over to the UK store, where I was promptly blocked from buying it due to geographic restrictions.

Tried Amazon.co.uk as well. I was not allowed to buy and download the MP3s. Of course, I could have bought the physical album and had it shipped to me, but I could not be bothered. The whole thing is ridiculous.

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by Daithi

My prediction -- Ten years from now, Macmillan is in bankruptcy, and Amazon has a couple blockbuster novels by their own authors, who were attracted by Amazon's 70% royalties.

Be interesting if they tried to cut deals with those making Macmillan the most money, anyway.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by starrigger

Many of these pricing disparities are probably not by design, but by neglect. As I just said elsewhere, many unfortunate things happen in publishing due to neglect and inattention. My guess is, somebody forgot to make it somebody's job to keep tabs on price changes. Or the person whose job it is was overworked and didn't get to it.

The publishers really aren't very good at this yet. I think we can all agree on that.

And i got the impression that Macmillan wanted to be serious about pricing (in the agency proposal) so this neglect would not be a part in the future.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

According to Fictionwise, the prices are all set by the publishers, Fictionwise just acts as an agent.

Strange. How can then Amazon set their own prices?

[tompe]

Well, if Macmillan takes ebooks more seriously we might get better formatted books. I do not buy DRM:ed books so for me this does not matter. But if the books were sold without DRM I cannot see how people can fix a price and say that this is a fair price. Why is 9.99 a fair price? Whi is not 12.99 a fair price?

[Guns4Hire]

Originally Posted by tompe

Strange. How can then Amazon set their own prices?

Because Amazon is a wholesaler/reseller. They buy their books and then resell them. Fictionwise is not a wholesaler/reseller. They are setup for Agency pricing. Which means they aren't buying the product only hosting the sale and getting paid a commission.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Daithi

If I were Amazon, I too would tell Macmillan to pound sand. What Macmillan is demanding is that Amazon give up their position as a retailer and instead become one of Macmillan's agents. Macmillan will then set the price that Amazon is allowed to sell books. Not to mention that Macmillan wants to demand the price of ebooks be set at $15, which is the price at which Amazon typically sells the hardcover. Why on earth would Amazon agree to this arrangment? Oh yeah, because Apple is dumb enough to do so.

My prediction -- Ten years from now, Macmillan is in bankruptcy, and Amazon has a couple blockbuster novels by their own authors, who were attracted by Amazon's 70% royalties.

I believe the reason Amazon gave up now is that the Kindle name device is out there, THEY dont want to keep making a loss on books forever.

So as a major publisher challenged them on it then others may have followed suit, leaving Amazon in a bad position.

Now they get to sell Ebooks at a profit again and they look like the good guys.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

Well, that's it for me. I'm selling my Sony (Yes I know it's not Amazon, but this will be all publishers soon enough), purchasing some new shelves and buying only second-hand paperbacks from now.

The whole ebook and book market is a joke, a sick joke played both on the audience and the spineless authors alike.

Why sell your Sony (unless it's to get an Astak EZreader 'cos that reads more filetypes)? I have a 505--and not a shred of software on my computer that will read DRM'd ebooks. I buy from Fictionwise (multiformat) and Baen and Smashwords, and get free ebooks from all over the place.

No reason to stop enjoying ebooks; get some popcorn and watch the publishing industries reenact the Napster wars in slow motion. (And wait for the first court case that says, "y'know, if there's no legit digital edition available, the PDF isn't infringing on any profits anyway...)

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by MerLock

Has anyone started a poll about what one would consider to be a fair price on ebooks? I'm curious to see what other people think is a fair price to pay for them.

There've been several polls. The general consensus is that Baen, charging $4-6 per book for non-DRM'd ebooks in several formats, is doing it right. Some people are willing to pay around $10 for ebooks, but many are not, especially for books that are available as paperbacks for less than that (or used, for less than half of that).

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

Why sell your Sony (unless it's to get an Astak EZreader 'cos that reads more filetypes)? I have a 505--and not a shred of software on my computer that will read DRM'd ebooks. I buy from Fictionwise (multiformat) and Baen and Smashwords, and get free ebooks from all over the place.

No reason to stop enjoying ebooks; get some popcorn and watch the publishing industries reenact the Napster wars in slow motion. (And wait for the first court case that says, "y'know, if there's no legit digital edition available, the PDF isn't infringing on any profits anyway...)

Smashwords is out for me, because a lot of their books have that obnoxious 'buy a separate copy and don't lend this one' notice at the beginning. Baen is out because I don't like any of the authors there. Fictionwise...again, not really got what I'm looking for nine times out of ten. Seriously, I could thumb my nose at the whole thing by going to the second-hand retailers and feel good about it in the process. For the most part, my ebook reader has become a paperweight and will be for a long time, until there's some equity in the whole damned mess.

I probably won't get rid of it though, as there's a lifetime of public domain texts available. May as well read them before the corporations outlaw the public domain and retroactively place it all back into copyright.

[GhostHawk]

The war is not over, Macmillan just won this battle.

Ultimately, prices and pricing will be decided by us the consumer, by what we will, and won't pay for books and ebooks.

Vote with your feet.
If your not happy with Macmillan and their subsidiary's, don't buy them.

If you think Apple upset the cart, boycot them.

Currently publishers seem to have a lot of power, but they are also shaking in their boots. The business of printing books is changing, they will change with the times, or they'll be plowed under.

If you think an ebook should never sell for over 5$ then never buy one over that price point. Talk to your reading friends, encourage them to do the same. Separately we have
small weak voices, but collectively, over time, we can make anyone listen to us.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by GhostHawk

The war is not over, Macmillan just won this battle.

Ultimately, prices and pricing will be decided by us the consumer, by what we will, and won't pay for books and ebooks.

Vote with your feet.
If your not happy with Macmillan and their subsidiary's, don't buy them.

If you think Apple upset the cart, boycot them.

Currently publishers seem to have a lot of power, but they are also shaking in their boots. The business of printing books is changing, they will change with the times, or they'll be plowed under.

If you think an ebook should never sell for over 5$ then never buy one over that price point. Talk to your reading friends, encourage them to do the same. Separately we have
small weak voices, but collectively, over time, we can make anyone listen to us.

Since I haven't even bought an ebook for 9.99 yet I'm guessing my feet were already voting...

[csdaley]

I have been think a lot about this the last few days. Here are my blog posts. I tried to approach it from both a writer and a consumer: (Book Publishing Goes Boom http://tinyurl.com/yhctsh9 & Amazon Slap Down http://tinyurl.com/yl3l5cz)

[MerLock]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

There've been several polls. The general consensus is that Baen, charging $4-6 per book for non-DRM'd ebooks in several formats, is doing it right. Some people are willing to pay around $10 for ebooks, but many are not, especially for books that are available as paperbacks for less than that (or used, for less than half of that).

I would have to agree. "The general consensus is that Baen, charging $4-6 per book for non-DRM'd ebooks in several formats, is doing it right." I would be in heaven.