Amazon Concedes on Electronic Book Pricing
In a fight over the price of electronic books, Amazon.com has blinked.
Amazon Removes Macmillan Books (January 30, 2010)
On Friday, Amazon.com shocked the publishing world when it pulled both the digital and physical books of Macmillan, the large international publisher, after Macmillan said it planned to begin setting higher prices for its e-books. Until now, Amazon has been setting e-book prices itself, and has established $9.99 as the common price for new releases and best-sellers.
But in a message to its customers posted to its Web site on Sunday afternoon, Amazon said that while it strongly disagreed with Macmillan’s stance, it would concede to the publisher.
“We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles,” Amazon said. “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.”
The message went on to suggest that Amazon customers may rebel against such a high price for books that cost far less to distribute than physical books. “
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,” Amazon’s online message said.
Macmillan officials were not immediately reached for comment on Sunday.
By BRAD STONE and MOTOKO RICH
Sunday, January 31, 2010
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