Comments on: Amazon and Macmillan

By: The $9.99 eBook : Core Economics

The $9.99 eBook : Core Economics — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:24:21 +0000

[...] Amazon and Macmillan [...]

By: Richard Green

Richard Green — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:05:05 +0000

On another Amazon note, I only just discovered that my Kindle allows you to change the country of the Kindle back and forth very rapidly. In just two minutes I changed the registration of my kindle to America and back in order to buy a book unavailable to Australian customers.
Amazon must be aware of this loophole, so I can only assume that they’re putting the ability to seel any of the their kindle titles anywhere over an ability to price discriminate by country.

Which makes me happy.

By: Jacques Chester

Jacques Chester — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:56:14 +0000

Personally, I’m on Amazon’s side. They are in effect trying to act as a single consumer: refusing to buy a good they think is overpriced. That flows on the consumer — ie you and I.

By: Warwick Rothnie

Warwick Rothnie — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:15:44 +0000

Apparently, Amazon and Macmillan have resolved their dispute. However, I recommend trying addall.com or the bookdeposity.co.uk when looking for books, especially.
addall.com aggregates prices from a very wide range of booksellers, not just Amazon and its affiliates. The bookdeposity.co.uk has free shipping to far away places like DownUnder.

By: kme

kme — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:31:55 +0000

Amazon admit that they’ll have to capitulate: http://tinyurl.com/ylduwlr

By: derrida derider

derrida derider — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:24:30 +0000

MacMillan are fools, trying to get gross margins from ebooks that are comparable to old-style dead-tree publishing.

The economics of publishing have changed; technological barriers to entry have disappeared. So those old margins will never be sustainable. Indeed, because costs are so much lower they are not even needed to make a profit (as music companies are already finding). If MacMillan carry on like this they will not just have trouble with their distributors, they will also lose their authors to publishers willing to pass on the savings in higher royalties.

Bottom line: Amazon is indeed guilty of a greedy and reputation-destructive act of anticompetitive bastardry. But Amazon’s greed, unlike Macmillan’s, is running with the economic tide so will win out.

By: Milton Recht

Milton Recht — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:18:54 +0000

A plug for the many independent book dealers in addition to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

http://www.abebooks.com/

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:07:20 +0000

Um, isn’t Macmillan guilty of retail price maintenance? Illegal in Oz and ( as I understand things) the US?