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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2010 > February > 01 > Entry
Amazon backs down…
The eBook wars get more interesting with each passing day. Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader is leading the market right now but publishers are upset at the way Amazon has been pricing Kindle downloads. Amazon has essentially been selling them for less that their cost so they can increase sales for their Kindles.
Over the weekend, Macmillan, one of the top 6 US publishers seems to have called Amazon’s bluff. Here’s more from The Telegraph:
“the pricing row over e-books between Amazon and the publishing industry suddenly turned vicious at the weekend, when Amazon pulled all Macmillan books - including, in the US, Booker prize-winner Wolf Hall - from its website temporarily.
“We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles,” Amazon said. “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 ebooks.”
“Ultimately”, it turned out, meant as soon as we realise how cross we have made everyone. Amazon’s effort to depict itself as a victim of nasty book publishers is hard to take seriously, given the gulf between Amazon’s profitability and theirs. This is Macmillan’s account of events last week.
Amazon’s real fight is with Apple and its new iPad, which is a rival to Amazon’s Kindle. Apple seems to be allowing publishers greater freedom in the pricing of digital books, and this has not gone down well with Amazon, which wants to keep its hold on a developing market. The irony, though, is that the Apple model would probably be more profitable for Amazon, which has been losing money on e-book best-sellers in order to push sales, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It’s too early to say whether Amazon’s rapid capitulation in this instance suggests that book publishers will do a better job of keeping control of their content than the music industry.”
To read the entire article click HERE:
Vick Mickunas
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: in the Amazone
Comments
By silverchakra
February 9, 2010 2:43 PM | Link to this
Forgo both Amazon, Kindle, and Apple and opt for the COOLER. It is cheaper. It doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles that the Kindle does, but when I want to read a book I don’t need all those other things. If I want to go online I’ll do that on my computer. I got a great deal on the COOLER at QVC. It also came loaded with many classics (some of which are listed in Vick’s top books)and then one can choose 10 more free books from the website. Cool!-er Sorry, couldn’t resist;)
By Page Turner
February 2, 2010 6:54 PM | Link to this
Mark: clearly the type of downloading you just described is not illegal, which I thought was your original question.
By Mark from St Paul
February 2, 2010 6:28 PM | Link to this
Page Turner, as a professional writer, I’m acutely sensitive to the issue of how writers, musicians and artists get paid. Our biggest problem isn’t downloading, it’s copyright laws that encouraged corporations to make sure that THEY owned everything they published, and not the writer who created the content. SF author Cory Doctorow has been “giving away” his books digitally for some time now and as a result he’s one of the better paid writers we have. Lady Gaga just got a Grammy for an album she “gave away.” There are many ways of fixing this problem, but corporations keep getting in the way. TechDirt is a remarkable resource for stories about how copyright makes creators miserable. More and more writers and artists are relying on their readers and fans to support them, and are doing OK. I doubt many people in this thread would read a free book all the way through and then not drop a buck in the writer’s cup afterwards if they enjoyed the read. The publisher of that $25 book you just read only gave a buck to the author. The only loser with digital is the publishing industry. Readers and authors have a bright future ahead of them once the lawyers get done making a mess of things.
By Chris
February 1, 2010 10:41 PM | Link to this
I doubt Amazon, the authors, or publishers are losing money at $9.99 for e-books. There is zero printing and shipping fees. There’s no brick and mortar fees. Transmission and storage of an e-book costs cents. Maintaining marketing via the Web is also a minimal fee in comparison to posters and ads. For the hundreds of thousands of books being sold online at that price, they are making a lot more money than their print counterpart.
By lmj
February 1, 2010 8:51 PM | Link to this
Of course, libraries are not really free. We just don’t pay for the service they provide when we use them. The library that Benjamin Franklin established was a subscription service. Publishers won’t quibble about supposed copyright infringement since the libraries are a large consumer for the publisher’s product.
By Insider
February 1, 2010 5:56 PM | Link to this
Why would authors bother to write books if downloading books were ‘free’? If they’re not getting paid they might as well save it for Confession.
By Blowfly
February 1, 2010 4:52 PM | Link to this
Mark, it’s a really good question because in theory what libraries do should be illegal as well; however, copyright law includes exceptions for libraries to do what would otherwise be an infringement
By Page Turner
February 1, 2010 1:22 PM | Link to this
Mark: because borrowing something and owning something are two different things.
By vick
February 1, 2010 12:57 PM | Link to this
The revolution? or merely a passing IFad?
By Mark from St Paul
February 1, 2010 12:48 PM | Link to this
By my math a stripped down iPad will hold at least 16,000 books. Give Apple a year and the iPad will be able to hold the Library of Congress — but only if you upload it illegally as the publishing industry will never accommodate itself to this new technology. Only those who break the law will be able to experience the revolution in progress. Or you could just go to the library. [furrows brow] Me? I’m still trying to figure out why libraries are free, but downloading is illegal.
By Steve
February 1, 2010 12:25 PM | Link to this
In theory, Amazon has been losing money on e-book best-sellers. In practice, though, not really, since they have an extreme profit margin on the selling of their Kindles.