1934 Price-fixing and US DOJ lawsuit

[6charlong]

Here's an interesting article that reminds us how the publishers did the same sort of thing in 1934 with pBooks--and got the same response from the government back then--when the Great Depression squeezed both the publishers and the book buying public.

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/12/150492...all-over-again

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by 6charlong

Here's an interesting article that reminds us how the publishers did the same sort of thing in 1934 with pBooks--and got the same response from the government back then--when the Great Depression squeezed both the publishers and the book buying public.

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/12/150492...all-over-again

If you read the article, the Government actually supported the publishers against "Macy's predatory pricing," Macy's ended up returning 36,000 copies and the publisher got to set the price... and Gone with the Wind continued to be a bestseller... and the prices stayed even after the original legislation was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court...

[FizzyWater]

But when the smoke clears in a few years, one thing will be clear: Publishers will be proud of the measures that carried them through the e-book revolution.

I don't know - maybe I have a hard time understanding the absolute hatred for Amazon in this because I never bought from them. I'd been a loyal Fictionwise buyer for years before Amazon's Kindle came out.

[plib]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I don't know - maybe I have a hard time understanding the absolute hatred for Amazon in this because I never bought from them. I'd been a loyal Fictionwise buyer for years before Amazon's Kindle came out.

The author appears to have ties to the publishing world.

[bgalbrecht]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

I don't know - maybe I have a hard time understanding the absolute hatred for Amazon in this because I never bought from them. I'd been a loyal Fictionwise buyer for years before Amazon's Kindle came out.

Yes, me too. I refused to by from Amazon until I knew that I could convert their formats to any format I used on my readers. Plus, Fictionwise had wonderful sales that allowed me to buy ebooks at a typical discount of 15% or more.

I believe the hatred for Amazon is because they are seen as killing the local bookstore with a one-two punch of ebooks and (heavily) discounted pbooks. I think people who are on the publisher's side buy into the mystique of the local bookstore as a haven for literature and literacy. In much of the country, I don't think you can find a bookstore in a town smaller than 10-15 thousand unless it's a college town, and often the people working there are nothing more than minimum wage clerks. In small town America, Amazon's probably a godsend. And you'll note that Jason Boog is a New York City editor, where bookstores are (were) far more common.

[GeckoFriend]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

....... In much of the country, I don't think you can find a bookstore in a town smaller than 10-15 thousand unless it's a college town.........

I live in a city in northern California, population 119,000, with two universities. The only bookstore is a Christian bookstore. The closest "real" bookstore is 20 miles away.