Tor Books No Longer For Sale On Amazon (for now)
Apparently there is a spat between MacMillan (the publisher) and Amazon over Amazon's pricing of Kindle books. According to reports, Macmillan is unhappy with the 9.99 price Amazon is pushing for the max ebook price. The forthcoming iBooks store from Apple will allow publishers to set their own price, which is rumored to be more like 12.99 and 14.99. Good luck with that, publishers! First you are going to charge more for books in the iBooks store, and to top it off, you will be using a proprietary epub DRM that locks your books to the Apple i-devices. One of the reasons I mention this news here, is because Tor books is owned (I believe) by Macmillan. At the moment, you cannot buy ANY Tor books from Amazon. And not just the Kindle...physical books have also been pulled. You can still buy them from the Amazon resellers, but not from Amazon itself. Should be interesting to see how long this lasts. So, don't look to buy books from Robert Jordan, Kate Elliott, Brandon Sanderson, L.E. Modesitt, Jr, etc.
While I know both companies want to make money, I am hoping Amazon wins this one. I guess publisher's haven't realized that folks that buy ebooks, on average, but a lot of ebooks. And in many cases, buy more ebooks than they would physical books. I might be in the minority, but I think pricing books at 9.99 will make the publishers MORE money in the long run, as it will enable people like me who like to read and buy books, to afford to buy more books.
Another point: if I have 30 bucks for books in a month, is it better for the publisher if I buy 1 book with that money (a hardcover), or 3 ebooks? Maybe in the end they get the same net amount, but doesn't the 3 book purchase help authors more, since I gave sales to 3 authors instead of 1? So if publishers are really looking to help authors like they claim, wouldn't pricing to boost volume (and hence more total books sold) be a better policy? Or am I just simplifying things too much?
Finally, the ironic thing about this situation is that Tor ebooks were the most expensive fantasy books in the Kindle store. Other than a few exceptions, Tor ebooks were not priced at 9.99 for new hardcover releases...they were more like 14-16 bucks each...the price Macmillan wants is the price Amazon was using. Its also the reason I haven't been reading as many Tor books lately..their ebook prices are the highest of the fantasy publishers. And its too bad, as I really like a LOT of the Tor authors (and the Tor reps I've talked to via email are always very nice and helpful).
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January 30th, 2010 - 15:15
"you will be using a proprietary epub DRM that locks your books to the Apple i-devices"
How's this different from Amazon's proprietary DRM Kindle format that "locks your books" to the Kindle?
January 30th, 2010 - 15:54
Kendall: I don't think there is a difference, either. That's why I don't buy ebooks from Amazon anymore..though most kindle books can be liberated so you can convert them to epub in Calibre. I buy all of my books from Kobo or the Sony store…or whichever epub store has the cheapest price according to Inkmesh. I don't think readers win with either amazon or apple. But at least amazon's lower prices drive the competition to lower theirs, too. Without Amazon, I am sbooksbook prices at the other stores would be higher than they are now.
January 30th, 2010 - 17:32
" I might be in the minority, but I think pricing books at 9.99 will make the publishers MORE money in the long run, as it will enable people like me who like to read and buy books, to afford to buy more books.
Another point: if I have 30 bucks for books in a month, is it better for the publisher if I buy 1 book with that money (a hardcover), or 3 ebooks? Maybe in the end they get the same net amount, but doesn't the 3 book purchase help authors more, since I gave sales to 3 authors instead of 1? So if publishers are really looking to help authors like they claim, wouldn't pricing to boost volume (and hence more total books sold) be a better policy?"
Unfortunately, you are simplifying things a bit too much. Yes, they would prefer that you keep buying books…but if you spend $30 total, and they have to pay for royalty rights, etc. to three different authors (and get their compensation reduced for each of 3 sales on Amazon or elsewhere); then the publisher makes much less money this way. Sure, volume helps, but in your situation – you aren't spending any more on their books, but they have higher costs. The publisher ends up with less money; and at a time where publishers are facing a dying/drastically changing business….that's just more bad news for them.
Look at it from a normal perspective – the publisher always prefer you spend $30 on a hardcover, then if you go buy 4 paperbacks for the same price. This is no different.
Of course, the one difference here is that eBooks certainly have lower "publishing" costs, since you don't have to print them…but I have no clue of the expense structure for creating an eBook.
January 30th, 2010 - 20:22
I am all with you here – and you can buy Tor books on Amazon, it's just they are from their affiliate stores, not from them directly.
As regard the 30$ thing, I would say that the choice for many is not between a hc and 3 10$ e's, but between 5 6$ used books at 2$ + 4sh and 3 10$ e's so it's very, very unwise to assume people will spend those 30$ on your one hardcover if you take away their ebooks
January 31st, 2010 - 05:19
You know, I hope Amazon loses this battle and then I suspect MacMillan will lose after people decide not to pay for as many ebooks at that price.
I really don't like it when I hear about a big company (Walmart is the big one that comes to mind) threatening to not sell an item because of how much it will be sold for. I've heard of Walmart basically forcing lower prices on businesses. Sounds like Amazon is trying to do the same thing. Once you have the huge audience that Amazon has, you start to have enough power to pull the stunt they just pulled. I hope Amazon loses this fight because I would hate to see them start dictating prices on other things.
(It may or may not be true, but I do understand that there are some things that are manufactured for Walmart only and use cheaper materials, construction, and quality control. I would hate to start worrying about getting sub-standard crap from Amazon if manufacturers end up needing to meet Amazon's price standards.)
But on the other hand, I think that $15 for an ebook is way beyond my price point. So I suspect that MacMillan will suffer too, even if they win the fight with Amazon.
January 31st, 2010 - 06:48
So did Amazon pull the books to blackmail MacMillan, or did MacMillan cut off the supply to blackmail Amazon?
January 31st, 2010 - 08:07
Greyweather: amazon pulled the books.
I think overall I agree with the last anonymous cooment. I'm not happy with Amazon's "prank", but I am also not happy with the higher ebook pricing. Macmillan has sent a press release this am that makes me feel better. Would post the link but I'm typing this on my iPhone. If they do plan a sliding ebook price scale, I might pay up to 14.99 for an ebook if they realease on time with the hardcover. But they better slowly drop the price as times goes by to match the mmpb price. I can understand the initial higher price for maybe 2-3 months, but after that it should drop to 9.99, then when the mmpb is released, it should drop again to the mmpb price.
January 31st, 2010 - 18:31
Well, Macmillan's record so far in lowering ebook prices at mmpb levels when such are available is dismal – well documented so I will not start linking to the many examples, easy to check; an ebook starts at 15$, it will stay there forever if Macmillan is to have their way.
Note also that in their press release they name Amazon as their "valuable customer for a long time" not us the readers and that's a main sticking point, for Macmillan readers *are not* the customers, while for Amazon they are and that's another essential reason to support Amazon btw.
What about if Macmillan next demands the same terms from Amazon on regular print books; we fix the price, you sell it there and take 30% – and before you think it's not possible, I understand that this was the way of book-selling for a long time in the UK (Net Book Agreement) until 1995 or so and it is still in France as far as I know
Here in the US it may be tricky under various consumer laws, but who knows – after all if it works for e's why not for print;
February 1st, 2010 - 07:18
I don't think e-books should be that much cheaper than the printed variety. Printing costs are at most 10% of the RRP – all other costs are equal (as amazon eats up the distributor's margin as well). You're not paying for the paper of the book, you're paying for the work that went into producing the content.
Amazon's 9.99 price is a loss-leader designed to sell Kindles; it's not a sustainable price, and persuading the public that books are worth less than $10 is not healthy for an industry which already runs on the thinnest margins of any entertainment sector.