by: Katie Allen
Amazon has conceded that it will have to give in to Macmillan in a row over the pricing of ebooks that saw the publisher's titles removed from the retailer's virtual shelves this weekend.
After a meeting between the two parties on Thursday ended in deadlock, Amazon stripped books from Macmillan – including Hilary Mantel's Man Booker prizewinner, Wolf Hall – from its website in the US.
In a posting on its site, Amazon said the talks stumbled over Macmillan's push to switch to a pricing model where $12.99 to $14.99 is charged for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases. Amazon, which has long been under fire from the publishing community for selling ebook bestsellers at $9.99, sought to paint Macmillan as the pricing tyrant.
"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 ebooks," the online retailer added.
"Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it's reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling ebook. 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 ebooks as an alternative."
Thursday's price spat with Amazon – home of the Kindle ebook store and reading device – followed the news that Macmillan was one of a handful of publishers to be the first in Apple's new iBookstore. Apple, which is potentially providing Amazon's biggest ebook challenge yet with the iPad, is expected to allow publishers more freedom to set their own prices.
Macmillan's chief executive, John Sargent, said the row with Amazon was about the "long-term viability and stability of the digital book market".
"Amazon and Macmillan both want a healthy and vibrant future for books. We clearly do not agree on how to get there," he said in a statement to authors, illustrators and literary agents, posted online.
Visitors looking up Macmillan titles on Amazon's US site this morning saw a list entitled "available from these sellers", but no Amazon price or order button.
The retailer is under pressure to stay competitive on price as digital books become a growing part of its business and rival sellers increase.
Macmillan's description of Amazon as "a great innovator" reflects the retailer's development of the Kindle, which publishers such as Penguin have credited with invigorating the ebook market in the US. Amazon recently passed a milestone when on Christmas day it sold more ebooks than traditional books, as people who got Kindles for Christmas bought titles to download.
But now it has a new challenger in the form of Apple. The iPad tablet brings with it the iBookstore and new pricing models for electronic publishing.
From: The Guardian
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