According to the several sources, Macmillan received a standing ovation. Shelf Awareness reports:
“And special thanks and a show of support to the Macmillan companies in the face of bullying tactics by one of our largest competitors.”–Michael Tucker, head of Books Inc. and president of the American Booksellers Association, speaking yesterday at the opening of the Winter Institute in San Jose, Calif. His comment was interrupted by a standing ovation from the 500 independent booksellers in attendance.
“Morituri te salutant,” (Those who are about to die salute you)
Poor clueless bastards.
Wow. ABS is as dumb as the publishers.
I find it disheartening that so many ebookers have such a limited perspective of what is happening in the world of ebooks and publishing; so limited that anything that is anti-Amazon or anti-$9.99 is automatically wrong and dissable.
I understand why the standing ovation occurred. Amazon has been an 800-pound bully and most publishers were/are afraid to stand up to it because of its market power. But that doesn’t make Amazon an angel. Don’t forget that it was Amazon who tried to force publishers to use its print on demand subsidiary (and just settled the lawsuit filed against it over that bit of monopoliztion attempt) and its contract with small publishers was clearly a one-sided (Amazon’s favor) take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Some ebookers may not like the results, but small publishers are probably hoping that this will cut Amazon down a size or two and make it more amenable to fair dealing with the small presses.
Remember that you do not have to buy an ebook that you believe is overpriced or overly burdened with DRM or from someone you don’t like.
Rich,
To being with, I think you are being unfair to many of our posters. Prior to the Macmillan incident, many posters here were critical of the Kindle for many reasons (primarily DRM, but also for other reasons).
Correct me if I am wrong, but the ABS is not so much an organization of publishers as it is book stores. It is natural that many if not most bookstores would celebrate anything that would take Amazon down a peg. The problem is that its kind of like celebrating the fact that your ship is the fastest on the ocean right after it hit the iceberg.
The internet has absolutely transformed the way that consumers buy books which is why many bookstores fear and/or resent Amazon. The internet coupled with e-books and devices like the Kindle are similarly transforming the way that people will read books. Bookstores had a hard time competing with Amazon when it came to paper books, most will have no effective way of competing with Amazon when it comes to e-books.
Ultimately, because of the nature of the internet, I suspect that there may be a few big e-book stores (Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple and maybe one other) and a handful of specialty shops (Baen for Science Fiction, Smashwords for Indie stuff, etc.). The public is best served if the stores are really allowed to compete against each other. Part of that includes either no DRM or device independent DRM… but just as important is that Stores be allowed to set their own prices based on consumer demand.
Is $9.99 the wrong price for books? Maybe, but the way to prove that is in the market place.