Amazon "capitulates"

[scarlettina]

The Washington Post has it that Amazon has given in on the Macmillan situation. Here's the full text of Amazon's concession and, my goodness, a pissier, whinier, more passive aggressive document has not been seen in years:

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Dear Customers:

Macmillan, one of the "big six" publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases. We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don't believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative. Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!

Thank you for being a customer.
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I'm impressed at the attempts here to manipulate buyers into thinking that poor widdle Amazon has been abused by that Big Bad Publisher! We'll struggle along--this publishing business is a jungle! Our loyal customers will show 'em who's boss, though! Just you wait and see!

The truth is that Jeff Bezos had a hissy fit and Macmillan decided not to indulge a child's tantrum. Bezos will be pouting for quite while yet I suspect.

ETA: Scalzi wraps it up nicely for us.

Comments

[katybeth]

Wow.

[willowgreen.livejournal.com]

ITA that suspending sales of Macmillan's books was a dumb way for Amazon to handle the dispute. Still, it's absolutely true that many Kindle owners have made it a point of principle not to pay more than $9.99 for an e-book. I'll be interested to see how their higher-priced e-books sell in comparison to the $9.99 ones.

[herself_nyc]

You're right, that is one heck of a badly worded capitulation. Geez.

[seankreynolds.livejournal.com]

I'd put that on every single Macmillan item's page on Amazon.com ... because Macmillan is demanding customers pay more than $10 for (as Robin Laws puts it) "an item that consists of a formatted text file, can’t readily be loaned to others even in your own household, and can’t be sold at a used bookstore after you're done with it."

[ironymaiden]

when i followed a link to the statement on Amazon last night, the response in comments was all in favor of the retailer rather than the publisher. (obviously, Amazon could be manipulating what appears on the page, in the same way that any comment moderation system can and that may have shaken out by now.)
it gave me a moment of pause. my internet world can be a bit of an echo chamber when it comes to this sort of thing...lots of writers/editors, and i can only think of two who are actual ebook consumers. in the short term Macmillan is going to get the bad PR as consumers fixate on "$15".