There is a battle going on at the moment between Amazon.com and Hachette Livre, the world’s 4th largest publisher. Amazon is putting pressure on Hachette for concessions on book sales, and with the French Publisher refusing to give in, is delaying delivery of Hachette books. Hachette authors are also accusing Amazon on discouraging sales of their books by boycotting Hachette authors.
The dispute has been going on for three months. Amazon wants to be able to set ebook prices at a flat $9.99. Hachette wants to retain control of pricing to preserve profit margins over ebooks which are more profitable for them than print books due to the lower cost to produce digital books.
In terms of the small publishers and authors that make up Amazon’s long tail, this standoff could have dire consequences. While Amazon is a lifeline for them, its requests for ever increasing discounts on books that are labor intensive and costly to produce in the small quantities is, ironically, pushing these niche publishers, who cannot operate at a loss, over the edge.
An excellent article on the debate was published by the New York Times this weekend.
The dispute has been going on for three months. Amazon wants to be able to set ebook prices at a flat $9.99. Hachette wants to retain control of pricing to preserve profit margins over ebooks which are more profitable for them than print books due to the lower cost to produce digital books.
In terms of the small publishers and authors that make up Amazon’s long tail, this standoff could have dire consequences. While Amazon is a lifeline for them, its requests for ever increasing discounts on books that are labor intensive and costly to produce in the small quantities is, ironically, pushing these niche publishers, who cannot operate at a loss, over the edge.
An excellent article on the debate was published by the New York Times this weekend.
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