Comments on: The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks

By: The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks by Aaron Pressman « e-what?

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:52:22 +0000

[...] Note: This is taken, with permission, from Aaron Pressman’s Gravitational Pull blog. One thing is becoming increasingly clear to me as I follow the news and attend various [...]

By: ampressman

ampressman — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:57:34 +0000

Totally agree. Another interesting piece of the puzzle today as the
WSJ reports apple trying to convince TV producers to slash iTunes
video prices in half to generate huge boom in sales. Puzzling to say
the least why Apple would move in the exact opposite direction for
ebooks with a 50% price hike.

By: teapirate

teapirate — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:36:28 +0000

Amazon seemed to have had a gut-level response that only took a couple days to overcome by rationality.

I have limited compassion for the authors. They made a decision to be dependent on Amazon, but Amazon is not a public institution dedicated to book selling. A couple days cut off from this overwhelmingly critical source of income is a small price to pay for a wake up call about the wagon to which they've hitched their fortunes.

Amazon might not be a white knight, but at least the path they are blazing has a future for literature. Unlike MacMillan.

By: SplinteredMind

SplinteredMind — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:51:23 +0000

Right, but by pulling books Amazon angered fans of those authors. It also hurts the wallets of those authors who are innocent bystanders in this battle. This puts a large portion of the reading audience against Amazon.com judging by the overall groupthink on Twitter. Amazon.com made a choice, and I respect their right to dictate how they conduct their business. I just wonder if there had been a better way. Considering that Amazon.com caved by Sunday night, I’m thinking they lost in this standoff. Perhaps the move was ill conceived, even if they were on the right side of the argument.

By: ampressman

ampressman — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:21:33 +0000

I think it's pretty obvious who is on the side of the vast majority of authors and readers for the long haul.

By: SplinteredMind

SplinteredMind — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:43:48 +0000

The big problem is that Amazon.com yanked authors' wares from being on sale to strongarm MacMillan. As MacMillan beats their chest, their authors take the brunt and fans turn their ire towards Amazon.com. In this battle, the readers and authors are the ones being hurt.

By: The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks by Aaron Pressman | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:03:18 +0000

[...] Note: This is taken, with permission, from Aaron Pressman’s Gravitational Pull blog. One thing is becoming increasingly clear to me as I follow the news and attend various [...]

By: Tweets that mention The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks | Gravitational Pull -- Topsy.com

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:27:04 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mike Cane, JA Konrath, April L. Hamilton, Hasna Saadani, Aaron Pressman and others. Aaron Pressman said: The real agenda of Apple’s ebook partners: death to ebooks | Gravitational Pull http://bit.ly/axEJyQ [...]

By: ecw0647

ecw0647 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:44:06 +0000

This analysis reveals how this “caving in” is a really good deal for Amazon: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-in-amazon-vs...

I think this is all really the first salvo in a much larger war to destroy discounting of books. The publishers really hated the extreme discounting going on in the big-box stores last Christmas and they see this as a way to gain control over retail pricing.

The Leegin decision of the Supreme Court in 2007 gives manufacturers more control over the pricing chain by legalizing the setting of a minimum price, something that had been illegal under the 1911 Dr. Miles decision. Good summary here: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-in-amazon-vs...

The German company that owns Macmillan is on record as hating ebooks, so this provided them with a nice opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Whether it works or not remains to be seen. I can already feel the warmth from lawyers rubbing their hands together in glee.

By: sunwriter

sunwriter — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:00:21 +0000

“Guys I can walk you through this. How much do you think a hardcover book costs us? A buck sixty. What are we saving? Not enough for the price point to drop from $22.50 down to $8.”

So he just admitted to screwing people over?