Amazon's damn fool move
So I was wondering today what on earth had happened to the Amazon listing of Moonshine.
Apparently, this:
As originally reported last night and many readers know by now, sometime yesterday evening the buy buttons for apparently all of Macmillan's books--including bestsellers and top releases, and Kindle editions--were removed from Amazon's site. Macmillan books remain listed but can be bought only through third-party Marketplace sellers, while Macmillan Kindle titles all lead to pages that read, "We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site." It is the first shot across the purchasing bow in big publishers' efforts to reset ebook pricing above the loss-leader $9.99 price point and retake control over that pricing by moving from the wholesale selling model to an agency selling model (first reported exclusively in Lunch Deluxe on January 19), at least for ebooks published simultaneously with new hardcover releases. Kindle customers further reported on Amazon forums that any Macmillan books that were on their "wish lists" disappeared from those lists with no explanation, as apparently did Macmillan sample chapters that had been downloaded previously.
Macmillan has commented by way of a paid message to authors, illustrators and agents, reproduced below this story. Amazon has declined to comment thus far, either to the media or directly to their customers.
This is an excerpt from a pay-only article at Publishers Lunch, but this is Macmillan's response.
You have got to be fucking kidding me, Amazon. You're a bookseller. The publishers who supply your product are telling you, with not inconsiderable reason, that your loss-leading prices on new releases are destroying the business. So you...refuse to sell every title by the publisher who most strenuously disagrees with you?! Not only that, but you actively remove those titles from the user-generated content for which your site is so famous and get rid of the Kindle links altogether?
Also: Scalzi.
Apparently, this:
As originally reported last night and many readers know by now, sometime yesterday evening the buy buttons for apparently all of Macmillan's books--including bestsellers and top releases, and Kindle editions--were removed from Amazon's site. Macmillan books remain listed but can be bought only through third-party Marketplace sellers, while Macmillan Kindle titles all lead to pages that read, "We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site." It is the first shot across the purchasing bow in big publishers' efforts to reset ebook pricing above the loss-leader $9.99 price point and retake control over that pricing by moving from the wholesale selling model to an agency selling model (first reported exclusively in Lunch Deluxe on January 19), at least for ebooks published simultaneously with new hardcover releases. Kindle customers further reported on Amazon forums that any Macmillan books that were on their "wish lists" disappeared from those lists with no explanation, as apparently did Macmillan sample chapters that had been downloaded previously.
Macmillan has commented by way of a paid message to authors, illustrators and agents, reproduced below this story. Amazon has declined to comment thus far, either to the media or directly to their customers.
This is an excerpt from a pay-only article at Publishers Lunch, but this is Macmillan's response.
You have got to be fucking kidding me, Amazon. You're a bookseller. The publishers who supply your product are telling you, with not inconsiderable reason, that your loss-leading prices on new releases are destroying the business. So you...refuse to sell every title by the publisher who most strenuously disagrees with you?! Not only that, but you actively remove those titles from the user-generated content for which your site is so famous and get rid of the Kindle links altogether?
Also: Scalzi.