sigh.

[silveraspen]

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

Comments

[silveraspen]

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.

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.