So my dad’s birthday is coming up, and SarahK says we should get him some Joseph Finder books. We of course first go to Amazon as we usually order stuff through there and have a subscription to Amazon Prime. Except Amazon won’t sell us the books. All of a sudden, they don’t list any of Finder’s books in stock and they’re only available through third-part sellers.
It ends up, since Finder’s publisher, Macmillan, wanted to charge more for ebooks through Kindle, Amazon pulled all of their books for its site, including the physical books. So because of some ebook dispute I don’t care about, Amazon is throwing a little tantrum and won’t sell me the paperback book I want. I guess Amazon is just panicking because of the iPad, but this little hissy fit really bothered me. And it was just weird having my self-published book
Amazon says it has already given in (though the books are still available), but in their statement they actually use the word “monopoly”… but directed at Macmillan. Yes, the biggest online store is trying to bully a publisher by not selling their product — inconveniencing me, their customer — and has the gall to call the publisher a monopoly and act like they’re the victim. I was a neutral party in all this — I don’t even read books, as I’m barely literate — but now Amazon has gone out of their way to insult my intelligence and call me stupid. And I love how they justify removing all of a publisher’s books from their site as saying “We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles.” That’s like saying, “We expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our agreement by killing their cat and leaving it on their doorstep with a note saying their family is next.” Yes, what a normal, ordinary thing to do.
I like Amazon. I buy tons of things through there through Amazon Prime. And SarahK loves her Kindle (and in fact only found out about the author Joseph Finder because one of his books was available for free on Kindle). But this is a big strike against them. Another incident like this where Amazon tries to get what it wants by bullying and treats its customers like imbeciles, and I’m gone.
UPDATE:
Here’s an effected author’s reaction (John Scalzi) which pretty accurately represents my reaction as a consumer. We first found out about this because suddenly we couldn’t buy a book we wanted from a site we pay $80 a year to for special service.
UPDATE 2:
Apparently Amazon is the Ron Paul of online stores in that some people feel the need to defend it in annoyingly obtuse ways.
More proof that the internet sucks.
bn.com
I use it for anything I can. Amazon gets whatever is missed, which is rare.
Go thou and do likewise.
So we are siding with the price-gouging publisher?
I’m already a Barnes and Noble customer.
Macmillan didn’t want to sell their ebooks for more; they wanted to sell them for varying prices from $6 to $15 instead of the flat $9.99 Amazon wants to charge for every ebook. The one who wanted the monopoly was Amazon. I never thought I’d side with a publisher against a retailer, but Amazon screwed up big time.
Do you suppose it’s a Jeff Bezos tantrum? Hmmmm????
You know, I have mixed feelings about this. Macmillan wanted to raise their ebook prices- which is stupid. It’s not like it costs them ANYTHING to publish, now that it’s in digital format.
Amazon said no- I presume because they have better business sense than a dead rat.
The publisher must be feeling pressure here. For years they’ve made a killing by selling books at a huge mark-up. They are the middle man- and less needed now that books can be read digitally.
And since there are only 4 or 5 major publishers, they have the advantage on price setting. In the end, raising the prices forces the consumer to either pay more, or don’t read. (or go to the library- which still has to buy the books)
I like ebooks but the ridiculous markup they put on them show utter contempt for the consumer and I for one support Amazon in their effort against insanity.
I just purchased a hard cover book for $4.99 at my local book store, regular price. Same ebook at Fictionwise is $27.90 plus shipping. Tell me again why Amazon is in the wrong?
Ooops that should red, plus Tax.
The other thing that’s weird about this is that Amazon was selling these books at a loss. Macmillan wanted Amazon to price the books higher… why? The goodness of their hearts? So that Amazon wouldn’t have such huge losses? (Amazon has to pay the publisher the same amount regardless)
Except that Amazon’s sales for ebooks was lower last quarter than they should have been. Now, if you’re Amazon, you know that people are more likely to buy things when they are cheap- not expensive. And you also know that if you can get a customer to buy from you once they are more likely to come back and buy again.
So in Amazon’s mind, selling the books at a lower cost makes sense, it is more likely to generate revenue in the future, and more likely to get people to want to try ebooks out for themselves. (as opposed to physical books)
Well, it was extreme. But then again, Macmillan was acting like a total douche-canoe. Maybe we should write to them and ask them to knock it off.
[Wha? -Ed.]
I never got the while ebook thing. eboooks don’t kill any trees. Blech.
Dear Macmillan,
Stop being a douche-canoe.
Love,
Jewels
Dear Amazon,
Frank wants one of the douche-canoe’s books. Can he please have it now?
Thanks,
Jewels
[My point — which is pretty simple yet you seem to be missing — is I don’t give a rat’s ass about the ebook dispute, yet Amazon went out of their way to piss me off. -Ed.]
You should also be pissed off at the local gas station and all the other businesses that didn’t offer to sell you the book that you wanted.
[How f’ing hard is this? Are you all Amazon shills? I pay $80 a year to easily order things through Amazon expecting them to have high demand items in stock, and suddenly they decide to not sell me an item because of some dispute I don’t care about. They made me mad for no reason, and now you’re making me mad for no reason… but I don’t buy things from you so no harm there. -Ed.]
books are over rated watch T.V. oh wait the liberals screwed that up, read comic books….what do you mean liberals are messing with them. Crap I’ll just go punch more hippies then.
Who runs these companies, really? This is junior high school behavior at best. I have grandchildren (all under the age of 4) who make better decisions than this. No wonder the economy is in meltdown and the government is threatening a stroke.
Could someone please call the adults and ask them nicely to come back and take over, before these young lions of industry finish off the rest of us?
Rather a big strike against consumers and Macmillan. Amazon is right about this.
From hatrack.com (the Orson Scott Card site):
OSC urges his readers not to buy from Amazon until they stop bullying publishers and authors and just sell books. Please use the links to Barnes and Noble provided on this site.
Heh. I don’t think they did it to piss you off, Frank.
No need to bite my head off. I was kinda on your side.
Tell you what. I’ll go rant about Pandas now or something. Then can we be friends?
[Never! -Ed.]
Here is another little trick that Amazon does to make customers really steamed about ebooks.
Did you know that even after you buy an ebook from Amazon you don’t really own it if the publisher decides to remove there books form electronic publication Amazon will remove any ebooks you have on your kindle that fall under that removal even if you have already paid for them. On top of that they will not give you a refund for any books you used to own the ebook of .
Funniest Post Ever!
I told you you were getting the hang of this blogging thing.
I bet they’d sell any book by Ron Paul.
LOL
Ok. We’ll be enemies then. Hey Frank! What does a panda use to sail the seven seas?
A: a douche-canoe.
😛
Why would you ever buy a paperback anyway? Yuck.
[Yes. No one at all buys paperbacks. Why do they even sell them? You smirt. -Ed.]
Frank, are you mad at me for not selling you a book about canoes?
Tell me no, please.
Oh, Frank! I’m having trouble finding you funny anymore after this anti-capitalistic rant!
Buurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
[Anti-capitalistic? Criticizing a company is anti-capitalistic? How f’ing stupid are you? Next you’ll be telling me criticizing what someone else says is anti-free speech.
THAT IS CAPITALISM YOU PEA-BRAINED LITTLE SNOT!!!
Go join the liberals with thinking like that. -Ed.]
I’m a capitalist Luddite.
I only buy “real” books.
Thoughts aren’t really real until you kill a tree and grind it into pulp and make paper and then put your thoughts on that.
Until then, thoughts are just imaginary.
Thank you, Paper.
You make reality happen.
P.S. These “e-books” that you speak of aren’t real, so therefore they have no real value. Why should I buy something that is imaginary?
P.P.S. These imaginary price wars you speak of aren’t really real, are they? And if they were, I would know about it, wouldn’t I?
P.P.P.S. Why am I imagining typing this on the internet? I’m a Luddite, dammit.
Heck, I’m just happy someone came up with the phrase, “douche-canoe.” It’s my new favorite insult!
Wow! I didn’t know you were a total ass, Frank!
I’ve been keeping up with this site for awhile because I really enjoy(ed) the content.
I have never seen you get so worked up before. And it’s because you are not getting what you want for your new electronic toy!
You are so funny! I believe you should be the one joining the liberals due to you going so nuts over my little comment! That is the liberal way ya know!
By the way, I didn’t mean that your comment was anti-capitalistic. I meant that you were having a hissy-fit over a company’s anti-capitalistic actions. Is it capitalism to try to force a company you are selling to to sell your product at the price you want them to as long as you are getting what you are owed? (If so, it is Obama-is-Frank-J.’s-lover capitalism!)
Frank! Please stop living in the douche-canoe with the stupid pandas!
[Electronic toy? What the hell are you even talking about?
I regret to inform you that you’re not a conservative; you’re a child. -Ed.]
Oh, Frankie! You are so funny!…in a special, not-so-fresh-feeling kind of way!
Whoop! Whoop!
I support Amazons’ right to make stupid business decisions. The question for you Frank, or Ed, Harvey, whomever, did it piss you off enough to drive your business elsewhere?
[Not quite, but if they make a regular habit of not making products available to me as part of some business negotiations I don’t care about, I’ll cancel Prime and take my business somewhere more stable. -Ed.]
I’m actually thinking about, gasp!, going to a bookstore Ed and I haven’t been to one of those in years and I don’t have Amazon Prime.
If they want to throw their weight around I’m not going to keep supporting them. The Kindle thing where they went into your property and took your property from you ticked me off.
Now this. And they’re recovery from it has been about as far from ept as you can be.