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

[ckd]

Which would be a perfectly good reason to stop selling Macmillan ebooks, but has nothing to do with the decision to stop selling Macmillan paper books.

[malkingrey.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That was the point, in my opinion, when Amazon crossed the line from playing hardball to acting like a dick.

[seankreynolds.livejournal.com]

When you're in a dispute with someone, and if you could legally stop sending them money, wouldn't you do so? You don't see a factory continuing to pay its workers when those workers go on strike--the workers would have no incentive to get the dispute wrapped up quickly.

Amazon was playing hardball. "You want to tell us how to run OUR business? Let's see how happy you are when a major retailer stops carrying your products."