Firstly, apologies. It wasn't my intention to cause irritation.
Secondly, one of the problems with the 'debates' on the Amazon vs Macmillan bust up is that there are a number of issues closely related - large publishing houses approach to epublishing, the $9.99 price point, Amazons blacklisting of Macmillan titles, and people tend to argue at cross-purposes as a result.
The reason I linked to the Teleread article is that it made an attempt to seperate out those issues, rather than concentrating on the $9.99 kindle ebook price, which (I feel) is a bit of a side show: there's plenty of evidence to show people are willing - even happy - to pay more than that for an ebook. Just look at Baen's $15 E-Arcs: I don't know how well they sell, but there's clearly a market for them. If that was all the debate was about, I doubt there would be anything like the anger towards Macmillan, and those supporting their stance, as there has been.
One point, though. You are, obviously, correct to point out that Amazon is Macmillan's customer, not the readers. However, under the agency model that will change, and the reader _will_ be the publisher's customer. And the (e-)reader is one group that the (large) publishers seem just as happy to... annoy... as Amazon is willing to annoy authors. OK, it's an order of magnitude difference: but no-one appreciates being ignored, or treated with contempt.
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mmmag
Um, sorry.
Date: 2010-02-12 06:00 pm (UTC)Secondly, one of the problems with the 'debates' on the Amazon vs Macmillan bust up is that there are a number of issues closely related - large publishing houses approach to epublishing, the $9.99 price point, Amazons blacklisting of Macmillan titles, and people tend to argue at cross-purposes as a result.
The reason I linked to the Teleread article is that it made an attempt to seperate out those issues, rather than concentrating on the $9.99 kindle ebook price, which (I feel) is a bit of a side show: there's plenty of evidence to show people are willing - even happy - to pay more than that for an ebook. Just look at Baen's $15 E-Arcs: I don't know how well they sell, but there's clearly a market for them. If that was all the debate was about, I doubt there would be anything like the anger towards Macmillan, and those supporting their stance, as there has been.
One point, though. You are, obviously, correct to point out that Amazon is Macmillan's customer, not the readers. However, under the agency model that will change, and the reader _will_ be the publisher's customer. And the (e-)reader is one group that the (large) publishers seem just as happy to... annoy... as Amazon is willing to annoy authors. OK, it's an order of magnitude difference: but no-one appreciates being ignored, or treated with contempt.
-Stuart