Amazon has begun re-listing Macmillan e-books, following a weekend row with the publishing giant over pricing. Macmillan has been pressuring Amazon to adopt a new model for selling e-books that would give publishers more flexibility in setting prices. The publisher said it preferred the ‘agency’ model for selling books for its forthcoming iPad device to […]
Amazon has begun re-listing Macmillan e-books, following a weekend row with the publishing giant over pricing. Macmillan has been pressuring Amazon to adopt a new model for selling e-books that would give publishers more flexibility in setting prices.
The publisher said it preferred the ‘agency’ model for selling books for its forthcoming iPad device to the current “wholesale” terms for Amazon’s Kindle, the current leader in e-readers. Amazon responded on Friday by pulling all Macmillan’s physical and digital titles from its website and Kindle e-book store.
02/02/2010
But after just two days, Amazon said it would resume selling Macmillan titles in spite of its “strong disagreement” with the publisher over its plans to charge higher prices for its e-books.
“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,” Amazon’s Kindle team said in a post on its website, “and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books.”
Amazon said customers would “decide for themselves” whether $14.99 (Macmillan’s desired price) or $9.99 (Amazon’s preference) was “reasonable” for a bestseller.
“We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan,” Amazon added. “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.”
John Sargent, Macmillan’s chief executive, said on his company’s website on Friday that he wanted to create a “stable and rational” business model for e-books, based on “ink-on-paper” retail, with “dynamic” pricing that changes depending on how long the book has been available.
“Amazon and Macmillan both want a healthy and vibrant future for books,” he said. “We clearly do not agree on how to get there.”
