Amazonfail #3

[julesjones]

Just in case you haven't seen it -- Amazonfail #3 is in progress.

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012148.html
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/01/30/a-quick-note-on-ebook-pricing/
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/01/30/its-all-about-timing/

My view on this is fairly similar to Charlie's. However, I simply stopped adding links rather than pulling all my links last time round, and was willing to forgive when they fixed the last one. The reason for that is that Amazon, for all its faults, was even throughout the LGBTfail willing to sell anyone pretty much anything, so long as they could actually track it down in the catalogue.

It's different now. They've deleted an entire publisher from their catalogue. Not made it hard to find them, but pulled the entries altogether. And that takes away my reason to put up with assorted nonsense over the years, which was that Amazon was a lifeline for a lot of minorities, because it really would send you anything legal to buy, in a nice friendly brown box.

I won't have time to sort out my website and blogs until I get home in a couple of weeks, but my Amazon links are going bye-bye.

Comments

[growlycub.livejournal.com]

I find it fascinating that authors are by and large blaming Amazon for this. From my side of the aisle it looks like Macmillan was trying to dictate to Amazon with regard to higher prices, so they could then turn around and sell for the same (higher) price through the ibookstore.

It's #Macmillanfail first and foremost for its CEO being a Luddite, for selling e-books at double the mmp price, for not discounting e-books originally published in HC even after the book has come out in mmp and for not understanding that we live in a time where the publishing model is evolving whether or not they want it.

Do I think Amazon is squeaky clean? I haven't shopped there since the Createspace debacle. By no means, but in this, the problem is Macmillan for its horrible consumer- and author-unfriendly marketing strategy.

[julesjones]

We're blaming Amazon because we know more than the general public about the mechanics and economics of getting book to reader, and thus the long-term effect of Amazon's actions on the diversity of books. See Teresa's comment at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012148.html#396969 -- Teresa works for Tor, so has an obvious bias, but also *knows* this stuff.

I think Macmillan's current ebook strategy is flawed, to put it politely, and so do a lot of the Macmillan group's authors and editors -- including all the ones I've linked to. But this is Amazon pulling a WalMart -- "You will sell to us at the price we dictate, whether or not you can make enough money at that price to be able to stay in business. Or we'll cut you out of our market." And the long-term effect on readers will be much less choice of books.

[julesjones]

Also, I do urge you to read the comments thread at Making Light, because there is a lot of good discussion there that is of general interest to readers who'd like to know more about the behind-the-scenes stuff, quite apart from why a lot of us are deeply unhappy with Amazon right now. I think you'd find it interesting.

[julesjones]

Oh ho. I am still reading the latest updates, and it appears that what set this off was Macmillan's desire to move to a pricing model where the ebook comes out at the same time as the hardback for almost every title, and priced between $13 and $15, and then drops in price over time to around $6-$8 -- i.e. to price it slightly below whatever the current paper edition costs. That makes me even more annoyed with Amazon.

I wouldn't mind betting that there is also an issue over DRM, because Amazon is dead set on DRM to lock people into their proprietary Kindle format, and some of the big publishers are slowly coming around to the idea that DRM only encourages piracy.

[autopope.livejournal.com]

Amazon started the fight. This is not, however, visible to the general public because they started it about two or three years ago and they've been tightening the screws slowly.

Incidentally, they pulled this stunt on Hachette in the UK last year, and Hachette blinked. Which probably emboldened them to try it again on a bigger target in a bigger market.

[julesjones]

The Hachette thing is the closest I've ever got before to permanently pulling the plug on Amazon, and the main reason I didn't was because I wasn't sure exactly what had happened.

"i didn't.. ..because i wasn't sure exacty what had happened"

[feetnotes.livejournal.com]

and whose condition of the settlement of that fracas was the gagging clause that ensured this?

Re: "i didn't.. ..because i wasn't sure exacty what had happened"

[julesjones]

Part of my problem there was that I had a bad case of Life at the time, and didn't have time/access to follow the kerfuffle -- so I wasn't even sure if it had all gone quiet because of a gagging clause, or if it had simply all been resolved while my attention was elsewhere. The commentary about it over the weekend has made it clear that the former was the case. Thus links go bye-bye when I get home.