More at the link.
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."
3 comments:
Does that mean we can buy our favorite Bill Crider books again?
Praise the Lord!
Jeff
Yes, Bezos, you're right, buyers WILL DECIDE if they want to pay the prices MacMillan (and other publishers) are charging. They should have had that option to decide from the beginning. So please don't pretend you were acting in your customers' best interests when you got into a stupid p*ssing contest with MacMillan.
Macmillan's "monopoly" over its titles is called copyright. It is granted by the government and gives to the creator of a work the exclusive right to control its use for a limited time. Many of my copyrighted titles are licensed from me by a subsidiary of Macmillan. Without Macmillan's "monopoly" and mine, anyone could make use of my material and pay me nothing.
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