The Battle of Kindle: A Call to Arms

[Acreo Aeneas]

I guess the rest of us who own other devices should start out own camp?

I'm not feeling any love.

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by guyanonymous

I'd much sooner pay a fair price that goes to the author, than to a 2nd-hand dealer who pays $0.50 for a book and then charges $7.00 (at least around here).

Well, here's an idea, then, and I have actually done this *years ago, with music*. Buy the paperback, used. Or download the book from the darknet. Send a check for the list price directly to the author, with a note explaining that you are bypassing the publisher entirely and giving the author full price. Most authors are a lot more accessible these days than in the past, and once you get a contact email for them, they may think you're crazy, but I haven't run into anyone yet that has turned down my request for an address to send them a check.

[guyanonymous]

I've done that actually, though usually not the full "list price". It was, however, higher than I'd been led to understand the creator usually received from the publisher.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by ardeegee

Meanwhile, the more publishers tighten their grip on ebooks, the more people will slip between their fingers to the dork side of the farce.

Luuuuke-- use the usenet, Luke.

Shhhh... the first rule of usenet....

[kjk]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Well, here's an idea, then, and I have actually done this *years ago, with music*. Buy the paperback, used. Or download the book from the darknet. Send a check for the list price directly to the author, with a note explaining that you are bypassing the publisher entirely and giving the author full price. Most authors are a lot more accessible these days than in the past, and once you get a contact email for them, they may think you're crazy, but I haven't run into anyone yet that has turned down my request for an address to send them a check.

That is an awesome idea.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Well, here's an idea, then, and I have actually done this *years ago, with music*. Buy the paperback, used. Or download the book from the darknet. Send a check for the list price directly to the author, with a note explaining that you are bypassing the publisher entirely and giving the author full price. Most authors are a lot more accessible these days than in the past, and once you get a contact email for them, they may think you're crazy, but I haven't run into anyone yet that has turned down my request for an address to send them a check.

I'd agree, if I thought the authors weren't as much to blame as everyone else. They're the ones supplying all the actual material, that which is later monetized and sold by publishers. Why don't they stand up for themselves for once? How about they start making some demands, huh? Without the authors there is no industry, but they're spineless cowards to a man.

*goes to the angry dome*

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I'd agree, if I thought the authors weren't as much to blame as everyone else. They're the ones supplying all the actual material, that which is later monetized and sold by publishers. Why don't they stand up for themselves for once? How about they start making some demands, huh? Without the authors there is no industry, but they're spineless cowards to a man.

*goes to the angry dome*

I've often wondered about this myself. Since becoming friends with several authors on Facebook and via yahoo groups, I have found that most authors firmly believe they have no rights at all when it comes to publishers. I guess it's like those of us who work minimum wage jobs under horrible conditions - because there's nothing else out there, or we can't afford to quit.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

I have found that most authors firmly believe they have no rights at all when it comes to publishers. I guess it's like those of us who work minimum wage jobs under horrible conditions - because there's nothing else out there, or we can't afford to quit.

There's also a degree of truth in the old joke about the guy who runs away from home to join the circus. He find a circus, gets a job, is handed a shovel and told to go clean the [excrement] out of the elephant cages.

Ten years later the circus makes a stop in his old hometown and he runs into some people he used to know, who ask what he's doing these days.

"I shovel elephant crap twelve hours a day in exchange for a place to sleep and two meals a day," he tells them. His friends, horrified, ask why he doesn't leave and find another job. "What, and quit show business?"

[eBook Resistance]

Never in the history of the internet has so much been asked of so few. We are fighting not just for the freedom of our eBooks, not just from tyranny, or oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our eBooks to live and be read at a fair price. For their right to exist independently of the publishers greed. Let today be the day we the declare to the enemy in one voice: “You shall not press down upon the brow of readers this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify the eBook upon a cross of gold! We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! We shall rage against the dying of the light!”

Join the eBook Resistance. Boycott all eBooks over $9.99, especially those from the Macmillan Tyranny and its subsidiaries. Know the enemy:

Macmillan Publishers (United States) (formerly called Holtzbrinck Publishers)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Faber & Faber
Henry Holt and Company
Holt Paperbacks
Metropolitan Books
Times Books
Owl Books
Palgrave Macmillan
Picador
Roaring Brook Press
First Second Books
St. Martin's Press
Tom Doherty Associates
Tor Books
Forge Books
Bedford, Freeman and Worth Publishing Group
W.H. Freeman
Bedford/St. Martin's
Worth Publishers
Nature Publishing Group
Scientific American, Inc.

[Avarwen]

The music industry was forced to change the publishing industry will soon follow suit. Now they bitch moan and groan much like the music industry once did. But as they see sales in ebooks go up they will have to take another look. $9.99 is the set price for so many ebooks on Amazon I don't see Macmillan's problem they still sell regular books. God knows that their text books cost an arm and a leg. Also if Apple lets publishers set their own price they may have already dug their own grave. All they'll do is charge full price like so many other e book sites. If that's the case I'll just buy a used book from Amazon or get a Kindle.

[MaggieScratch]

Will you continue to boycott the books once the price drops to $9.99 or below?

If so, what's the point in boycotting them in the first place?

[mcl]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

Will you continue to boycott the books once the price drops to $9.99 or below?

If so, what's the point in boycotting them in the first place?

What evidence, other than a single blurb in a Macmillan press release, do you have that the price will drop in a reasonable timeframe (note that I consider 'reasonable timeframe' to mean 'a drop that coincides with, and jibes with, the release of the trade and mass-market paperbacks')?

The only evidence I can find for Macmillan's ebook pricing shows that they maintain a list price identical to hardcover price for books that have been in mass-market PB reprints for years.

[MaggieScratch]

This new model is not starting until March. I wouldn't get upset about it until it is implemented.

I am hoping for a definitive statement, but I do not think it unreasonable to infer from Sargent's statement that the prices will drop over time. That's pretty much what it says.

Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.

I don't know how that can be interpreted any other way. I understand the mistrust, but I maintain that if the price DOES drop, boycotts make little sense.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by MaggieScratch

This new model is not starting until March.

It will be starting at the Apple bookstore in March, because that's when it opens. I don't believe we have any firm date on when it will come into effect at Amazon. In the meantime, however, if you go to Fictionwise or Mobipocket, which have been operating on publisher-set prices for quite some time, you can see the model in action. Or the inaction of the model, as the case may be.

I am hoping for a definitive statement, but I do not think it unreasonable to infer from Sargent's statement that the prices will drop over time. That's pretty much what it says.

In the cases of some Macmillan books "over time" is now up to ten years, with no sign of a price drop yet. Keep in mind that Mr. Sargent believes that there is no future for electronic publishing and that paper publishing is a dying business. Approached from that perspective 'set prices as high as possible, grab the money, and get out' may seem like a reasonable business plan.

[JoeD]

Whilst I won't be buying any Macmillan books in the future if they raise their prices, I'm not going to side with Amazon on this either. Why? Because amazon only sell eBooks to kindle owners. Rather than selling in ePub format for anyone with any device and letting the features of the kindle win over customers on the hardware side.

Both Macmillan and Amazon are in my badbooks atm.