Amazon vs. Macmillan
AKA Let the eBook Price Wars Begin!
The ebook pricing battle between Amazon and Macmillian continues as Macmillian books are still not being sold by Amazon.com as of this post.
murderersUsed books, or other editions published by a different company, may be available, but all Kindle versions and paperbacks cannot be bought from Amazon.
If you read any author or publisher blogs, you’ll know all about this.
For those who don’t, the three sentence summary is
1. Amazon wants to sell ebooks for a fixed, maximum price of around $10
2. Macmillan wants to sell ebooks on an agency model for a price range of $15 to $6
3. Amazon removed their “buy” links for all Macmillan books over the weekend
For a more comprehensive history, review, and analysis and debate of the situation, please read the following. If nothing else, you’ll learn all kinds of good, publishing business background information.
- John Scalzi’s “A Quick Note On eBook Pricing and Amazon Hijinx” and “All The Many Ways Amazon So Very Failed the Weekend“
- Jay Lake’s “An open letter to Kindle enthusiasts and ebook activists“
- Scott Westerfeld’s “Zinc Blinked“
- Tobias Buckell’s “Why my books are no longer for sale via Amazon“
- Charles Stross’ “Amazon, Macmillan: an outsider’s guide to the fight“
- Andrew Wheeler’s “More on Amazon-Macmillan“
As with any battle, it will be interesting to see who wins, who says they won, what happens next, and how history will re-write it all.
Feb 2, 2010
Categories: agents & editors & publishing
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