A roundup of Amazon vs. Macmillan. And thank you for the lost weekend.
February 1st, 2010 | by Paolo |Tobias Buckell talks about the economics of ebooks in the post: Why my Books are no longer for sale via Amazon.
Charles Stross describes some strategic aspects in the fight. Amazon, Macmillan: an outsider’s guide to the fight
And Scott Westerfeld sums up the battle in clean clear prose, so anyone can understand how–if not exactly why–it came to this: Zinc blinked.
Update 11:26pm: Scalzi analyzes Amazon’s media strategy… and finds it hilariously wanting. All the many ways Amazon so very failed the weekend.
Lots and lots of other smarts and fun via the twitter trend #amazonfail
2 Responses to “A roundup of Amazon vs. Macmillan. And thank you for the lost weekend.”
By Garrett on Feb 26, 2010 | Reply
Interesting reads, especially Scott Westerfeld’s post. I bought The Windup Girl via new hardback rather than waiting for a cheaper version / ebook / getting it from a library specifically to “vote with my dollars”.
I wonder, with an ebook/digital download which has an effectively non-existant propagation cost, why $10 isn’t sufficient? I paid about $19 shipped for my hardback, and I figure a couple dollars goes to the printer, various shipping companies, the brick & mortar store, etc etc etc.
A digital download you should only have the authors share, the publishers share, and a tiny sliver for the distributor (Amazon in this case). They have practically no expense, are doing practically no effort, and should receive practically no profit on their risk-less endeavor. Leaving $9.50 or more each per sale for the author and the distributor to divvy up seems pretty generous.
At least, that is how I as a complete outsider, see it. I’m sure it’s more complicated than I’m reducing it to.
By Jamey on Mar 7, 2010 | Reply
And in slightly different news, I decided to use a A-zon gift certificate on Pump Six and Windup Girl (read library copy first and then decided to buy them).
Gack! “Pump Six” is out of stock everywhere I looked? So, I must wait for the trade paperback in December ’10.
Another mystery of the publishing world. Phbbt.