Comments on: Looking Like A Fool With Your Foot In Your Mouth

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:38:23 +0000

I understand what you’re saying Rob. It’s not so much that I’m pro Macmillan as extremely unhappy with Amazon. As a retailer, they have the right to decide what they want to stock, I suppose, but a dispute over kindle pricing shouldn’t extend to pulling hardcovers and paperbacks when that isn’t part of the issue. That’s just dirty, and shows a complete lack of consideration for the consumers.

I also think that pulling so many titles from kindle shows a lack of respect for readers. They want people to buy their kindles, and many will weigh the pros and cons and decide to because of the increasing volume of books available. Suddenly yanking hundreds, if not thousands of titles could really upset someone who just dropped a couple hundred on the kindle and now has to get those titles elsewhere.

There’s going to have to be some flexibility on everyone’s part moving forward, to make the best decisions for the long-term viability of the publishing industry.

As for the music industry, Nick Mamatas has a post up about the differences between music and publishing that’s well worth checking out:
http://nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com/1431081.html

By: Rob Gregory Browne

Rob Gregory Browne — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:49:18 +0000

I realize the above implies I’m somehow siding with Amazon on this. I’m not. I’m siding with the authors and the public. I think Amazon made a questionable move, but I think everyone needs to sit down and think this all through before they start pulling triggers.

By: Rob Gregory Browne

Rob Gregory Browne — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 14:46:56 +0000

I’m not sure I get Macmillan at all. But at least Amazon has caved a bit. The hard copy editions are back. Hopefully the Kindle stuff will soon follow.

Publishers had better get smart very fast and embrace the idea of ebooks with a different mindset than they’re used to. Otherwise, they’ll wind up going the way of the record companies — alienating the public and driving a good portion of them to find alternate sources for reading material. And the book business can hardly use that right now.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:00:22 +0000

Well, no Rob, it isn’t over. I mean, Amazon has said it will bend to Macmillan, but they still haven’t done so. Interesting that Amazon is so willing to lose money, isn’t it?

By: Rob Gregory Browne

Rob Gregory Browne — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:59:02 +0000

Has there BEEN an end to this yet? My books still aren’t available on Amazon and I’m mighty pissed about it.

By: Dana King

Dana King — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:02:26 +0000

I was worse than you ever thought of being on my blogs. I just said what I thought, laid out what I thought made sense, and waiting for people to line up to correct me. Sometimes the best way to learn is to rile people up.

Plus, you were still pretty much right, at least in a reasonably functioning universe. Let’s face it, Amazon (large booksellers in general) and Macmillan (large publishers in general) are never going to give us the straight scoop on any of this; we’ll always be dealing from a position of some ignorance.

BTW, you and Gordon have it exactly right. What needs to be done is to get to a standard so these rights aren’t subject to eternal squabbling.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:51:06 +0000

Gordon, I’m with you. I don’t think anyone should be restricted to one format. What happened to the free market?

By: Gordon Aalborg

Gordon Aalborg — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:35:55 +0000

Well said, Sandra — all of it.

My concern isn’t about the price wars, or lack of them, so much as that awful, niggling feeling that might be familiar to those (like me) old enough to remember the VHS/BETA fiasco.

What *I* want — sooner rather than later — is some sort of FINAL (which in our times might mean it lives only a week. ) establishment of a universal ebook format that EVERYBODY’s reader accept without a whole lot of nuisance value.

Give us that — then we can dicker over pricing.