I don’t normally comment on industry going on’s on my blog. I tend to keep my opinion to myself and chat with friends about the ramifications. But this one really had me shaking my head.
I woke up this morning and read the news that Amazon pulled all Macmillan books from their site over a price point dispute on Macmillan e-books. They pulled not just e-books, but all of them. If you haven’t heard about this yet, I recommend reading this article.
I work for a very large corporation in my day job (no I won’t mention the name here). I’ve seen a wide assortment of business decisions, corporate posturing, market jockeying, etc in the six years I’ve worked there. All businesses are out to make money. It’s the point of having one. You get your particular widget, make it the best widget you can and then you sell it. Now some companies don’t sell their products direct to consumers. They use a third party to do that. For example, cell phone companies typically sell their devices through a carrier, rather than invest in a storefront infrastructure to do so.
Publishers sell their books to bookstores (through distributors), who in turn sell to us. Yes, there are exceptions, but for the most part that’s how it works. Amazon didn’t like the idea of selling an e-book for their Kindle for $15. Now, the business side of me really can’t blame them. I will barely pay that for a mass market book. But Amazon’s reaction to Macmillan was way off base. Pulling every book is like shooting yourself in the foot.Take this example.
Let’s say I make a brand of pop called Super Duber Sugar Blast (obviously I’m not in marketing). I sell my product only to fast food restaurants. Now let’s say the biggest of those restaurants and I fight about what they are charging. Really, I would normally have negotiated via contract the price range I’d have wanted the restaurant to charge, but let’s pretend that didn’t happen. We fight, only for the restaurant to come back and say, “Hey, we are in charge of our prices, not you. We’re not selling any of your products in protest!”
Fine. I look across the street and see a competing fast food restaurant. I know they also sell my pop. I smile, nod and walk across the street.
Hello Barnes & Noble.
I’m sure Amazon will have Macmillan books back on the virtual shelves soon enough. They are still out to make a profit and have investors who will be breathing down their necks. What they have unfortunately done, is added another black mark on their records with consumers. After the yanking of the e-book fiasco, this erodes consumer confidence yet again. While the biggest game in town, Amazon isn’t the only one. The mighty have been known to fall on occasion.
For more perspectives on the events, I recommend you check out the following blogs:
Amazon has been doing very odd things which remind me of Stephen Harperisms. Amazon unilaterally yanked things from their site before and seemed shocked when it didn’t go over well, then backtracked.
Is it worth the two seconds of I’m-king-of-the-world? It must be.
Even a week after the fact my head still spins at this debacle.
As a reader who always tries to get the most and/or best books for her buck, I agree with Amazon.
As a writer who understands that publishing (and writing!!) is a business and everyone involved deserves to make money.
I think if people knew how little editors and writers actually make, they’d be more supportive. The big six aren’t the oil companies with their private jets. They aren’t even in the same league as banking execs with huge bonuses.
Perhaps people look at JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer and think that authors can retire after one book… (ha. hahahahahahaha.)
Either way, Amazon really overstepped by yanking those books from their site. I hope they lose a lot of customers of that one, just to drive home the point…