Holy flip-flop, Batman!
Yesterday, we posted of the budding eWar, between Amazon, Amazon's Kindle and Macmillan Books (and, by extension, all book publishers), with Steve Jobs and his iPad standing (licking his chops) in the shadows.
Today, at 2:22 PST, Amazon blinked;Dear Customers:
Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Thank you for being a customer.
Hmmm ... Seems like today, Jobs gets to smack his lips, now that Amazon has caved.
For now, apparently, Amazon is content to let Macmillan be viewed as a greed-head, as opposed to Amazon, the assholes.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
eWar Follow-up: Amazon Blinks!
Saturday, January 30, 2010
It's An e-War!
There's still a lot in innings left in this game, to determine, if, when the crush develops, will the cupid-stricken young boy offer to carry his sweetheart's Kindle, iPad, or some other device, to school for her.
In the meantime, an e-War has broken out.
Amazon and Macmillan go to war: readers and writers are the civilian casualtiesWhen I woke this morning at 5AM UK time, I discovered an in-box full of emails from people asking if I knew what was going on with Amazon. My books -- and all books from Macmillan and its many divisions, including Tor, my publisher -- had disappeared from the Amazon webstore in both physical and electronic editions.
The New York Times quotes an industry insider as saying that Amazon pulled these books in retaliation for a demand from Macmillan to raise the price of Kindle books from $10 to $15. Presumably, Amazon perceives the $10 price-tag as a way of encouraging people to buy its Kindle platform, which itself is a kind of roach-motel for books: the license terms and DRM on the books in the Kindle store prohibit you from reading your Kindle books on competing devices. So books check in, but they don't check out.
[snip]
If the NYT's report is true, then this is a case of two corporate giants illustrating neatly exactly why market concentration is bad for the arts:
Read the rest of Cory Doctrow's post, as he also lays out a convenient (for readers and consumers, certainly), solution.
And, settle this thing fast, boys, I have three books I be lookin' to get published.
Back to the e-War, Henry Blodget adds;Publishers have therefore been pressuring Amazon to raise prices on Kindle books, which Amazon is loathe to do. Amazon is selling Kindle books for $9.99 for two reasons:
[snip]
And if Amazon were just an eBook seller, it might have to cave immediately. But it isn't. It's also a huge physical book seller (which, by the way, Apple isn't). So if a publisher gets too uppity, Amazon can just threaten to kick its books right out of the store.
And that appears to be what has happened with Macmillan.
[snip]
Eventually, eBook prices should drop significantly, to reflect the incremental cost of goods sold (zero). This should encourage more book-buying and book reading, as well as a greater volume of sales. In the meantime, however, the publishing industry appears intent on stonewalling. And in that endeavor, it has found a new friend--Steve Jobs.
Yeah, right, Steve Jobs.
Once the heavy-duty fighting starts, undoubtedly, Apple will come out with something, like iRocks, you can throw.
Or, maybe, it will escalate to iDrones.
Bezos, over here ... Jobs, you go over here ...
Let's get ready to rumble!
Bonus eWar Fragments
Paul Miller: Macmillan books gone from Amazon.com, Steve Jobs grins wryly from his throne of golden iPads
John Scalzi: It’s All About Timing
Matt Buchanan: The Apple-Amazon eBook War Begins: Amazon Deletes Macmillan Books
To: All Macmillan authors/illustrators and the literary agent community
Top Ten Cloves: How The Amazon Kindle Can Effect The Legal World
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Top Ten Cloves: How The Amazon Kindle Can Effect The Legal World
News Item: Introducing Amazon Kindle - Revolutionary Portable Reader Lets Customers Wirelessly Download Books in Less Than a Minute and Automatically Receive Newspapers, Magazines and Blogs
10. If Casablanca were being made now, Rick Blaine would have copied the Letters of Transit into The Kindle to hide them from the Nazis
9. Bigger Legal Fees - Divorces will now become more contentious, with the fight over who gets to keep The Kindle
8. Witnesses will start hearing "Raise your right hand and place your left hand on The Kindle ..."
7. Should cut down on jail breaks - Pretty tough to hide a pick or file inside a Kindle
6. If The Monotones were around now, they might be suing someone for the illegal downloading of "Who Wrote The Kindle of Love"
5. You could bet that Perry Mason would trap someone in a lie, based on something to do with The Kindle
4. The Scopes Trial - If it was taking place now, Clarence Darrow would stun the court by having a monkey work The Kindle
3. The Paper Chase - none of the students would be intimidated by Professor Kingsfield - They'd have all the Wildy's on The Kindle
2. Judges and District Attorneys are going to have to learn how to say "We're gonna throw the Kindle at you"
1. Hawaii 5-0 would see McGarrett barking "Kindle'em Dano"
Bonus Amazon Kindle Links
15 Things I Just Learned About the Amazon Kindle
Liveblogging the Amazon Kindle E-Reader Show with Jeff Bezos
First Look: Amazon’s Kindle Reader: The Gap Between Description and The Device
