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Amazon using corporate muscle again

For discussion about particular book sellers (brick-and-mortar bookstores, online book sellers, auction sites, swap sites, etc.)
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Divia
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Post by Divia » Thu February 4th, 2010, 2:42 am

Very interesting article and when you think about it makes sense.

I think its a great idea for indy writers to put their books into kindle format. That makes a ton of sense. I mean its at a lower cost so then they may sell more books.
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parthianbow
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Post by parthianbow » Thu February 4th, 2010, 1:12 pm

[quote=""cw gortner""]I'm watching this very closely; I'm with McMillan now, through St Martin's Press, and I strongly believe McMillan standing up to amazon was a good thing, no matter how self-interested. How this will all end up for authors in the long run is unknown; however, today I checked out several McMillan authors on amazon, including our own Tony Hays, and their Buy buttons are still not available. If I were published today with McMillan and this was happening with my book, you bet I'd be upset. Very upset, in fact. No matter what the tussle, that authors should have paid the price of lost sales over this issue is outrageous and unacceptable. And it certainly hasn't made me want to buy books on amazon.[/quote]

It's happened to my books, Christopher, and I'm not happy! According to my editor at SMP, though, they are still talking to Amazon, and the matter should be resolved. When, he did not say.
Last edited by parthianbow on Thu February 4th, 2010, 2:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Thu February 4th, 2010, 3:39 pm

[quote=""SarahWoodbury""]That's really interesting because I have emailed my books (which I've written) to Amazon in a Word file (via the Kindle email link they gave me when I bought my Kindle) and they email it back to me in their AZW format. So, I'm not sure why they can't do that for you with their upload. They do say on their site that they only take PDF files from authors for the Create-Space publishing. HOWEVER, if you go to Lulu and create a file there (for free) and format it for their books, they will allow you to download your book to your computer as a PDF. I have no idea if this could then be uploaded to Amazon and come out properly. Just a thought.[/quote]

Oh the Word file works, it just takes up exponentially more Kindle pages and most of those are blank for some reason. The book is there, but how many people are going to go through 30+ blank pages just to find the copyright info? I need to play around with the formatting and see if I can fix the extra pages issue.

My PDF file is from Lulu as they are who I use for the printing of my books and I sell eBooks through them already. There is a bit that says Amazon is working to resolve the PDF issues.

I'll be getting a proof copy of my new contemporary novel through CreateSpace so maybe I'll be able to get that one on Kindle with less frustration.

Hey, can anybody tell me what is the size of a Kindle page? That could be the whole issue.

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Anna Elliott
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Post by Anna Elliott » Thu February 4th, 2010, 7:39 pm

[quote=""parthianbow""]It's happened to my books, Christopher, and I'm not happy! According to my editor at SMP, though, they are still talking to Amazon, and the matter should be resolved. When, he did not say.[/quote]

I thought Amazon had already capitulated? Or is there more to the conflict still going on?

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Post by Chatterbox » Thu February 4th, 2010, 7:41 pm

I think they have said they will have to capitulate (they are grandstanding). The Macmillan books that were on my wish list(s) are still AWOL.

Curiously, I've also seen the prices on a bunch of Random House family Kindle books jump up by $1 or so in the last week... from $9.99 or so, to more than $10, and from the neighborhood of $14 to more than $15... No PR about that yet; I wonder how many people have noticed. These are ones I have been mulling, and I've had them on my wish list, so have picked up on it.

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Post by Misfit » Thu February 4th, 2010, 10:14 pm

More links on the topic from Dear Author, http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010/02 ... gle+Reader
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parthianbow
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Post by parthianbow » Fri February 5th, 2010, 9:41 am

[quote=""Anna Elliott""]I thought Amazon had already capitulated? Or is there more to the conflict still going on?[/quote]

It's still going on. I've had an email from the CEO of SMP (for all agents & writers) forwarded to me by my editor. In it, he says that they're still talking, and things will be resolved soon, but he cannot say when.
Last edited by parthianbow on Fri February 5th, 2010, 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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SarahWoodbury
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Post by SarahWoodbury » Fri February 5th, 2010, 7:39 pm

From Publisher's Lunch today:

Hachette Announces Agency Model, Simultaneous Releases; Guild Says Macmillan Will Be at 25%
Hachette Book Group ceo David Young formally confirmed their adoption of any agency model in a letter sent to agents. As part of that move, they will indeed drop their strategy of windowed releases and release e-books simultaneously with hardcovers

Young writes: "There are many advantages to the agency model, for our authors, retailers, consumers, and publishers. It allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors' works. In the long run this will enable Hachette to continue to invest in and nurture authors' careers - from major blockbusters to new voices. Without this investment in our authors, the diversity of books available to consumers will contract, as will the diversity of retailers, and our literary culture will suffer."

He also underscores that "these new terms open doors to all online e-book service providers and create more avenues for delivering e-books to readers."

Noting that under the new model "we make less on each e-book sale under the new model; the author will continue to be fairly compensated and our e-book agents will make money on every digital sale. We're willing to accept lower return for e-book sales as we control the value of our product - books, and content in general. We're taking the long view on e-book pricing, and this new model helps protect the long term viability of the book marketplace."

The press is on full alert on this story and will make every declaration by a house "breaking news," but we'll just remind you that five big houses essentially announced their adoption of the agency model last week by signing agreements with Apple.

Also yesterday afternoon, the Authors Guild posted that--as implied in a Guild/AAR panel discussion last month--John "Sargent confirmed that Macmillan's standard e-book royalty would be 25% of receipts under their new boilerplate contract." (Note that Sargent himself has not commented on this.) They add that "we look forward to continuing to discuss with Macmillan other provisions of its proposed new contract." Meanwhile, a number of agents tweeted "25 percent of what?" after the posting, which is the new question that the agency model raises. Sargent said in his letter yesterday, "the change to an agency model will bring about yet another round of discussion on royalties, and we look forward to solving this next step in the puzzle with you."
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michellemoran
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Post by michellemoran » Fri February 5th, 2010, 8:07 pm

Thanks for the excerpt, Sarah, and for the link, Misfit. Interesting...
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Anna Elliott
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Post by Anna Elliott » Fri February 5th, 2010, 8:11 pm

Very interesting, Sarah, thanks for posting. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes down and whether any lasting changes come about.

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