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Amazon: "Ultimately, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms..."

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Posted this after noon on Amazon:
Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Click here to read commentary from bookish conspiracy theorists.
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Comments

Suzan Harden said…
Interesting. For having "capitulated", as of 8PM CST Amazon still only has the third-party sales available for Macmillan books.

Yet, they yanked the links off by midnight on Friday.
8:09 PM
Colleen Thompson said…
Absolutely, Amazon. Let the free market decide what price people are willing to pay. If they don't like MacMillan's price, they can vote with their dollars.
8:43 PM
Joni Rodgers said…
Honestly, I probably won't pay $15 for a Kindle book, but that's for me to decide, and Macmillan should be free to do what they will with that information.

This was such a thug-like maneuver on the part of Amazon, it made me feel bad about how I've been preachin' the gospel of Kindle. If this had happened before I bought a Kindle, I wouldn't have bought one. It's a huge turn off.

Bottom line, this whole conflict should have been kept on the downlow. Negotiations like this are like your parents having sex: you know it's going on, but you don't want to know about it.
9:10 PM
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