Amazon has pulled books from publishing giant Macmillan, according to the New York Times. Authors — and book buyers — began to notice last night that Amazon was no longer selling any of Macmillan’s titles (although they can still be purchased on the site from third-party sellers). The skirmish is most likely the latest chapter in the bitter war that Amazon and publishers are waging over the cost of e-books. Along with other companies, Macmillan has been pressing Amazon to raise the price of e-books, while Amazon is keen to keep prices low to promote its reader, the Kindle. (The $9.99 e-book prices advertised during the holiday season were a special point of contention.) So it is any coincidence that Macmillan is emboldened to make such demands just days after the unveiling of the iPad from Apple? Probably not. Apple, after all, made it clear it will allow publishers more freedom to set their own prices for e-books. And when Steve Jobs was asked at the iPad press conference why customers would buy an e-book for $15 from Apple if they could get it for $9.99 on Amazon, he replied, “That won’t happen…Publishers are actually going to pull their books from Amazon because they’re not happy.”
Macmillan is, of course, one of the biggest book companies in the world and its imprints include Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Henry Holt and St. Martin’s Press, which publishes Janet Evanovich and Augusten Burroughs, amongst many others.
UPDATE (6:00 p.m.): Amazon did not respond to a request for comment. Macmillan CEO John Sargent issued this statement moments ago, addressed to Macmillan authors, illustrators, and the literary agent community: “This past Thursday I met with Amazon in Seattle. I gave them our proposal for new terms of sale for e-books under the agency model which will become effective in early March. In addition, I told them they could stay with their old terms of sale, but that this would involve extensive and deep windowing of titles. By the time I arrived back in New York late yesterday afternoon they informed me that they were taking all our books off the Kindle site, and off Amazon. The books will continue to be available on Amazon.com through third parties. I regret that we have reached this impasse. Amazon has been a valuable customer for a long time, and it is my great hope that they will continue to be in the very near future. They have been a great innovator in our industry, and I suspect they will continue to be for decades to come. It is those decades that concern me now, as I am sure they concern you. In the ink-on-paper world we sell books to retailers far and wide on a business model that provides a level playing field, and allows all retailers the possibility of selling books profitably. Looking to the future and to a growing digital business, we need to establish the same sort of business model, one that encourages new devices and new stores. One that encourages healthy competition. One that is stable and rational. It also needs to insure that intellectual property can be widely available digitally at a price that is both fair to the consumer and allows those who create it and publish it to be fairly compensated. Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E-books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time. The agency model would allow Amazon to make more money selling our books, not less. We would make less money in our dealings with Amazon under the new model. Our disagreement is not about short-term profitability but rather about the long-term viability and stability of the digital book market. Amazon and Macmillan both want a healthy and vibrant future for books. We clearly do not agree on how to get there. Meanwhile, the action they chose to take last night clearly defines the importance they attribute to their view. We hold our view equally strongly. I hope you agree with us. You are a vast and wonderful crew. It is impossible to reach you all in the very limited timeframe we are working under, so I have sent this message in unorthodox form. I hope it reaches you all, and quickly. Monday morning I will fully brief all of our editors, and they will be able to answer your questions. I hope to speak to many of you over the coming days. Thanks for all the support you have shown in the last few hours; it is much appreciated. All best, John.”
More on e-books:
Apple’s iPad is officially here
Amazon says e-books outsold physical books on Christmas Day
Kindle’s popularity fires up
I like my i-touch but I am not going to spend money for an I-pad when the books that go on there will not go on my i-touch also, if publishers want to pull out from amazon and barnes and noble or price higher I can easily go back to the library and rent books for free
That makes no sense. The point of the iPad is to give you a large reading area so you don’t HAVE to use your tine iTouch screen to read.
Yes, but I can take my Touch in my purse, and read anywhere. The IPad, while awesome, is too big to be carried around everywhere my ITouch goes. Unless I get a bigger purse…hmmm, an excuse to go shopping…
I read my ebooks on my kindle and my ipod touch. I will not abandon amazon. I will go back to reading real books before I pay more for something that doesn’t cost that much for publishers to put out. Amazon compromised by allowing publishers a bigger share of the ebook profits. This argument between the publishers and amazon is starting to make the differences between republicans and democrats look tame!
Actually, Amazon allows far less profit to publishers than the new Apple model will. And don’t forget: Even if a book is not printed on paper, it will still be edited and fact-checked; its author will still receive an advance; publishers will still be taking out ads, sending authors on tours, and so on and so on. Don’t make the mistake of equating the low purchase price of an e-book with a product that costs very little to produce. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You have several good points, but you know what’s also important? That with the many areas entertainment has splintered into, books remain affordable to casual readers. I hope publishers and Amazon can find a balance.
I must agree. Publishing is at such a crossroads right now. People don’t realize how much money is actually behind each book. Books are still one of the most affordable forms of entertainment out there.
I am unimpressed with Amazon’s temper tantrum. This attitude is why Kindle is not my choice for an e-reader. Of course publishers want a reasonable control over their book prices. If a company, such as Amazon wants to discount deeply, it should be their loss. Now, I wonder, since I am disagreeing with Amazon if I will find my account pulled, LOL!
I hope so…
I love Amazon, from whom I’ve been purchasing books for years. I don’t own an e-book reader as I prefer the experience of actually holding the book and browse through the pages! I’ll stick with Amazon which now that all Borders bookstores have closed down in the UK is the the best alternative for people that such as me read a lot of American authors! Plus I can buy 2 books at Amazon for the price of the same book UK version in other bookstores.
just go to the friggin library
Here is a different perspective of the whole issue:
http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/01/30/macmillan-pens-open-letter-to-authors-and-agents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dearauthor+%28Dear+Author%3A+Romance+Novel+Reviews%2C+Industry+News%2C+and+Commentary%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
Amazon is bastages.
Thank goodness for Amazon! Publishers didn’t like them when they started the third party book seller. I have saved thousands of dollars on textbooks using their site. I know their are many people who touch a book but I also know that there is a great profit margin too. Amazon, yes they make money, but they have tried to keep things affordable. Can’t say that Apple ever has…. look at their fourth quarter results.
Oh Please. MacMillan has been very apparent in it’s disdain for e-books well before this skirmish. They have often priced their ebooks higher than even the paperback price. Some imprints they don’t even offer ebooks for. The president believes that ebooks are not good for the industry. They want to preserve the hardcover market parradigm. Their belief is that if an ebook is offered the same day as a hardcover it cuts into the sales of the hardcover. Except most books are published in paperback (hence the term mass market) and most hardcore readers/e-readers purchase in paper. And not only that, they’ve been making noises about delaying ebook releases for up to seven months after hardcover. This open letter to publishers, authors and agents (notice NOT to readers) is smoke and mirrors.
And if he thinks the (Max)Ipad is going to energize their sales he’s dead wrong. Who buys a large Ipod to read an over priced book? It’s the wrong market.
And according to Steve Jobs, if pubs were gonna “yank their books from Amazon” anyway it looks like Amazon just beat them to the punch.
They just don’t get how technology is driving change and want to stick to the old ways of doing things. It is shortsighted. And in the end, the only winners will be the pirates.
An e-book does not need to be printed, bound, boxed, and shipped, so why sell them at a lower price? I agree with Amazon pricing. As for the argument that the price will have a negative impact on physical book sales: Before we got a Kindle I didn’t read much. It was for my husband who reads a lot. But since we go the Kindle, I have read more books in the last month than the last 5 years. I would not have bought these books in their physical format. SO, if not for the kindle there are several books we would have not brought anyway
Your rebuttal for the argument is really weak. You are just one person in a huge market. It’s like me saying that they shouldn’t make Blu Rays any more b/c I only have a DVD player and won’t purchase a Blu Ray player.
Spoke with a senior citizen–a snowbird in Florida–a sector of society that can still buy a new device. She bought the Nook. Less complex than the Apple iPad. (Disgusting name by the way–have to say that probably only men were involved with the naming of the product.) She claims that she researched all the devices. Her new bestseller cost her $8. Is Amazon really leading the deep discounting of books?
I’ll stick with the library where prices are still and will always be FREE.99! That way the publishers don’t get one penny from me.
Incidentally, the authors you read will also not receive any compensation for their work.
That is not at all true. Libraries do pay for books and buy more than one copy. Publishers and authors do make a lot of money because of the library purchase of their books.
Yes, but if you consider how many readers there are per book…
I have a Kindle, I really like mine and this does not change my mind. I have a few authors that do not publish on Kindle.
Paper back books I have bought are 9.99 in the store anyway….
The whole reason I bought a kindle was for the cheapter ebook prices. As a student and voracious reader, I couldn’t afford to buy the hardcovers all the time, which (when first released) cost anywhere between 16-20 dollars, while the ebook only costs 10 bucks and less for others. I have to side with amazon on this. 10 dollars is a good price for a new ebook and it’s not like everyone in the world owns a kindle or other type of e-reader. The publishers are still making their money and I have no sympathy.
But what about the authors? The cheaper the book is set, the less money they get back per sale. And now their books are pulled from Amazon, their distribution is seriously hurt. The Macmillan authors are the real victims in this scenario.
I sympathize with the authors to some degree. We’re in a recession; buying books has become difficult for people who are living paycheck to paycheck. The true victims here are the readers. While Amazon and Macmillian are having their hissy fit, it now became that much harder to buy books period.
You’re living in a fantasy world if you think that established authors are’t going to get there share. All this is just corporations trying to fix prices, something I find very un-American. They refuse to embrace new technology and adapt their business model. I remember similar arguments with the introduction of vcrs and video rentals and how that was going to destroy Hollywood. Now DVDs are a important part of their business; a movie that bombs at the box office can become profitable through DVD sales. Don’t fall for these publisher’s scare tactics. Amazon is in the right here.
The established authors aren’t the ones I’m worried about.
perseo — Amazon is the one that’s trying to fix prices here.
Noooo! I love my Kindle and will stick with it. Since June have read 120 books – thanks to the convenience of the Kindle- carpool lines, office waits, long weekends on children’s tournament trips, travel. Come on – work this out! My daughter s getting the iPad but doesn’t care about the book feature as much as the fun apps. You can’t read the iPad with one eye shut, lying on your side and still turn pages like the Kindle…
its so weird why would anyone want to read a virtual book, the smell the touch, its real, i love books and will keeping ordering paperback on amazon, really good prices!!
i’m sure they’ll figure something out, after all its mr GREEN BILL who runs the show!
I’m so glad I’m not the only book freak! I love the way books feel in my hand, the way they smell, and that sound that they make when you open them for the first time! I have however just ordered an e-reader but it is ONLY because I want to save and not have stacks of books in every room. But I will still buy my favorite author (Stephen King) in traditional book form.
I felt the same way…I am a book addict, and have long since run out of space for all the books I have. I was given a Kindle quite unexpectedly, and didn’t expect to like it. However, I have enjoyed it immensely. I liken it to the old “vinyl vs. digital” debate in recorded music. Purists will always feel their old technology is the best, but there are advantages to the new options. No reason they can’t co-exist.