The War of Hachette and Amazon

[Highbury]

Has anyone been following this story? I've done some reading on it, trying to get a handle at what is at play. It seems that it is just a power struggle over which distributing force gets control of pricing. The publisher or the e-retailer. The underlying theme is around e-books, Amazon obviously is no saint with its Kindle and exclusivity to only Amazon e-books. However, the big publishers are no saints either, perhaps far worse when you see how broken the publishing model is. I am actually surprised authors are so supportive of the publishers considering what % the authors get of the revenue but then again the ones who are so strongly voicing concern are the ones who don't have true financial burden and strain. They are the subscription writers who put out their two to three to ten books per year.

At the end of it, to me it feels like publishers want to control price to ensure that e-books don't dwindle their paper book sales. After all, publishers spend prospect/acquisition and marketing/advertising money and it costs a lot, they need to make sure they generate enough revenue from the successful ones to cover the expenses on the flops.

Not taking sides entirely, to me it is one coin with heads on both sides. I don't buy e-books at all and probably never will, I do buy paper and I don't want to see that jeopardized. I guess I have a vested interest in both sides. Lower prices and sustainability which side with Amazon but The continuation of paper books with stable pricing which sides with the publisher perhaps.

[Joe315]

I've read a little on this as well. I know that amazon makes most of its money on the kindle and some other things, and they generally take a loss on books and movies. I don't know why Hatchette cares what Amazon sells their ebooks for so long as they get their money for it, whatever that happens to be.

[Martin]

I have followed it and actually feel that the media is trying to make more of it than it actually is. All distributors and retailers haggle over the price and margins. Often times a retailer will not carry someones product because they are unwilling to pay the demanded price and a distributor will not sell to someone because they will undercut the retail, negatively impacting other retailers who are selling the product. I see this as amazon wanting to discount the items further and the distributor not being willing to take the margin hit. Both have the right to draw their line in the sand. There is no reason all e-books need to be available on Amazon. Granted Amazon is a very large retailer and items not being available there will impact sales. Each side has the right to not do business with the other if the terms are not acceptable. Just my view.

[TJCams]

I have a feeling, that Amazon does cut prices on certain e-books - therefore undercutting the competitors, and for that purpose. It's bad enough, but understandable why, they only offer e-books for kindle, as that is their product. This is why I will probably never buy an e-book from Amazon.

[RJK1981]

The only way I am willing to buy ANY eBooks is if they are low-priced. I will never be willing to pay the kind of prices the publishers want to charge. Especially since there plenty of examples of poor eBook editing from them. Of course they have their issues with the physical books they publish, too. I don't think I'll ever forget how bad the eARC of Nick Cutter's The Troop was. It was so poorly edited that it was unreadable. I don't expect an ARC to be perfect, but you should not put out any products so poorly done when you are looking for advance reviews and praise. They are lucky I didn't give it a horrible review everywhere I could. I am interested in getting a physical copy at some point, but doubt I'll ever be willing to risk getting an eBook of it.

[bugen]

I read more ebooks than any other format, by far, and almost never pay more than $3. I'll go up to $5 if I really want to check it out. Any more expensive, and they get entered into a program that tracks and notifies me when the price drops to what I'm willing to pay.

But I'm a HUGE fan of hard copies, especially small press limited editions. When I've read an ebook that I love, the search begins for a nice edition of a permanent, hard copy. If I don't love the ebook, oh well, I tried, and I'm out $3. The way the math works out I spend much, much more on specialty editions than I do on ebooks, despite have many more ebooks than physical. You'll get no argument from me that the small press editions are usually the ultimate form of the story.

I don't expect this system to last forever, but in the meantime I'm able to read and collect much more of what I want using it, and actually need ebooks to remain cheap in order for it to work. They are not the replacements of physical books for me, they are the predecessors.

[TJCams]

bugen: I am the same way - I will not pay more than a couple $ for an e-book. Why pay $8.99 or 12.99 for an ebook? I can get the paperback for close to the same price probably. CD has good pricing on their e-books, and yes they offer them in multiple formats too!!!!

I don't really have a preference, but have been reading more books, as opposed to e-books lately, but that is just the way things have played out in terms of what I want to read.

[TerryE]

Here's what I don't get. I bought an album from Amazon last year. There was a special offer giving me a digital copy of the same album. Nice. I got an e-mail saying the album was available in my "Cloud Player". So I download the cloud player so I can listen to the album before the physical copy shipped. When I opened the player, there were hundred of songs in there. Not only the album I just bought, but albums I'd bought over the past several years. I had no idea that I had access to all the digital music. It was wonderful.

Why can't they do that with books? I saw an offer a couple months ago with discounted e-books for some books I've purchased, but not all. I would gladly pay a couple bucks for an e-book version of a hardback I've just bought. The publisher and Amazon already have the money from my purchase, so the author and his agent are getting their cut. What do they lose by letting us have an electronic version of the same work? I figure at that point it is pure profit to be split among the parties involved.

[Highbury]

Yikes no I don't want an e-book with my hardcover if you mean bundle like with blu rays and digital copies. It is just asking for a surcharge of some sort for something not everyone goes for. Hardcovers are expensive enough to me.

I would think e-book readers and book readers are two different beasts, the people I know that love e-books swear by their device and rarely buy the paperback and never the hardcover unless its an absolute favorite author. They love what e-reading offers and hooked to it like cigarettes. While others like me just has to have the book in hand or else its too foreign.

[Joe315]

Here's what I don't get. I bought an album from Amazon last year. There was a special offer giving me a digital copy of the same album. Nice. I got an e-mail saying the album was available in my "Cloud Player". So I download the cloud player so I can listen to the album before the physical copy shipped. When I opened the player, there were hundred of songs in there. Not only the album I just bought, but albums I'd bought over the past several years. I had no idea that I had access to all the digital music. It was wonderful.

Why can't they do that with books? I saw an offer a couple months ago with discounted e-books for some books I've purchased, but not all. I would gladly pay a couple bucks for an e-book version of a hardback I've just bought. The publisher and Amazon already have the money from my purchase, so the author and his agent are getting their cut. What do they lose by letting us have an electronic version of the same work? I figure at that point it is pure profit to be split among the parties involved.

Pretty sure this is the publishers not wanting to do it. This option is there for their independent authors, however. I have gotten a free ebook with many of my recent purchases. This is up to the author the use this option though.

[TerryE]

Highbury, I don't mean a bundle. I mean an option of spending just a couple more dollars for an e-book version. I'd much rather hold my book and read it, but I don't want to shuffle a nice hardcover from home to work to the doctor's office. It's nice to read my physical copy at home, then be able to continue where I left off by reading an e-book version on my phone if I'm in a waiting room somewhere. When I read Frankenstein a while back, I had the nice Wrightson illustrated version at the office, a paperback at home, and an e-book version on the phone. I could read it anywhere without carrying it around.

[Highbury]

Ah! Gotcha.
I can understand those scenarios, especially if I was reading The Stand or some massive book.

[bookworm 1]

F. Paul Wilson posted an article on Facebook from one of the news organizations about this. After reading the article it seems Hatchet is the issue. At least that is how I read it.

[Highbury]

JA Konrath has some good info on his site. I don't agree with everything he states but some of the facts really do paint Hachette poorly. Makes sense now why preorder buttons are gone and delivery is stalled.

[bugen]

Thanks for pointing out the Konrath take, Highbury. The article was interesting, and I feel I should admit I'd been leaning a little toward the Hachette side until reading this due to some comments I'd read from some of my favorite authors. It's the Hachette delay tactic that decides the argument for me. Very few people who are actually interested in real cooperation and supporting an emerging market to mutual benefit would use delays and stonewalling as part of the negotiation process. You pretty much never make forward progress that way.

http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2014/0...-proposal.html