sigh.
On Amazon vs. MacmillanFrom my perspective, Macmillan (or any other publisher) is free to price their books however they like. I am free not to purchase them if I think the prices are too high -- or to wait for paperback or used-book or library versions. E-books are somewhat of a different story on that last score, because I'm not aware of an
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Consequently, Amazon (or any other distributor) is free to refuse to carry any product that could cast them in a negative light or otherwise impact their bottom line. There are other ebook distributors that do not have the same pricing regulations as Amazon that would allow Macmillan to set whatever price they choose.
If I were to create, say, a new breakfast cereal, and then try to shop it around to stores by saying they could carry it, but they had to charge $10 a box for it, there's nothing that says those stores have to accept. No matter how good the cereal is, if the store doesn't believe they can get $10 a box for it, they aren't going to waste money or shelf space on something that won't sell. Now, a natural food store might pick it up at that price, but I shouldn't expect it to show up at Publix or Kroger's.
If Macmillan raises their ebook prices on Amazon, other publishers will likely follow. And a rash of increase in ebook prices is hardly what Amazon needs with iBooks coming up fast on the horizon. The Kindle has enough problems compared to the iPad. Losing competitive pricing would be the final nail in the coffin.
Which doesn't mean that striking all of Macmillan's books was a particularly smart move from a P.R. perspective, but neither was it purely spiteful or the wrong thing to do.
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You are absolutely right, and I should have made that clearer above. Amazon is perfectly within its bounds to not carry products that do not interest it or not of value to the business -- because it IS a business, not a publicly-supported service.
However. My problem with their reaction to the current situation is that from what I understand, the contract for terms of sale for ebooks between them and Macmillan expires in March. They don't have to agree to the new price point; they don't have to carry Macmillan books after March; they could stay under the previous terms of sale and carry a more limited selection, etc.
Instead, they have chosen to try to exert the clout of their market position in this heavy-handed way as a pre-emptive strike. It smacks of "go along or we'll shut you out." It's a tactic I don't approve of, and thus because of this, I now choose to not support them in the e-book realm.
I agree that Amazon is going to have to really do some good competitive strategy when the iPad comes out (although from what I hear, the current iPhone iteration of iBooks is really not all that); they've already got a lot of competition in the e-book reader line from other companies. I don't think, however, that they'll lose competitive pricing if they agree to or negotiate a good settlement with Macmillan. I suspect that other e-book vendors will shortly be doing the same thing, if the publishers get their way on this. Amazon needs to be cognizant of the long-term effects of their business model and business decisions, true, and I'm not saying they should bend over backward -- but conversely, acting like a bully at the playground isn't the way to go about it.
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