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Amazon and MacMillan
Jan. 30th, 2010 06:39 pmMacMillan? McMillan? Something Scottish anyway.
So when I first heard about this, I thought Amazon had only pulled the Macmillan e-books. And as I don't buy e-books, it was more interesting as an intellectual 'hmm, let's see how this plays out' exercise. But then I found out it was all books, even the traditional, papery kind. At about the same time that I learned Tor is part of MacMillan.
So my next thought was.. isn't N. K. Jemisin's book with Tor? Does that mean they've canceled my pre-order? And if they haven't, should I, as a form of 'hey, Amazon, you got yourself into this, here's where it leads' semi-protest, and place the order with B&N.com, for which I have a gift card anyhow.
But it turns out The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an Orbit book. So it's still listed in my open orders. With a shipping estimate of March 1st? What the frell, Amazon?
So, anywho, for the brief timespan where I thought Amazon was screwing over the release of the first book of an author I know, it hit a little closer to home than an intellectual exercise. Just because it's not affecting this book, doesn't mean it's not affecting release of first books by other authors trying to get a career off the ground.
So who gets screwed in the end? Not Amazon, who has a right to not work with a publisher if they want, really. Not MacMillan, who has a right to set the prices for their own books, truly. But the authors get screwed. And the readers get screwed.
And Amazon starts looking even more like Walmart, who I try very, very hard not to shop with, but every year or so, get sucked into the store and hypnotized into buying by the low-low prices.
And Amazon, it's a dickish move to do this with no warning, on a Friday.
Or is this a 'glitch' like the last time you did this?
So when I first heard about this, I thought Amazon had only pulled the Macmillan e-books. And as I don't buy e-books, it was more interesting as an intellectual 'hmm, let's see how this plays out' exercise. But then I found out it was all books, even the traditional, papery kind. At about the same time that I learned Tor is part of MacMillan.
So my next thought was.. isn't N. K. Jemisin's book with Tor? Does that mean they've canceled my pre-order? And if they haven't, should I, as a form of 'hey, Amazon, you got yourself into this, here's where it leads' semi-protest, and place the order with B&N.com, for which I have a gift card anyhow.
But it turns out The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is an Orbit book. So it's still listed in my open orders. With a shipping estimate of March 1st? What the frell, Amazon?
So, anywho, for the brief timespan where I thought Amazon was screwing over the release of the first book of an author I know, it hit a little closer to home than an intellectual exercise. Just because it's not affecting this book, doesn't mean it's not affecting release of first books by other authors trying to get a career off the ground.
So who gets screwed in the end? Not Amazon, who has a right to not work with a publisher if they want, really. Not MacMillan, who has a right to set the prices for their own books, truly. But the authors get screwed. And the readers get screwed.
And Amazon starts looking even more like Walmart, who I try very, very hard not to shop with, but every year or so, get sucked into the store and hypnotized into buying by the low-low prices.
And Amazon, it's a dickish move to do this with no warning, on a Friday.
Or is this a 'glitch' like the last time you did this?
