Writers Feel an Amazon-Hachette Spat(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
Writers Feel an Amazon-Hachette Spat
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/technology/writers-feel-an-amazon-hachette-spat.html
17 comments
This sounds reminiscent of similar accusations regarding books from Lightning Source being sold on Amazon being given long delivery estimates.
Lightning source is a print-on-demand publishing service from Ingram that competes with Amazon's CreateSpace PoD service.
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/09/amazon-and-lightning-...
Lightning source is a print-on-demand publishing service from Ingram that competes with Amazon's CreateSpace PoD service.
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2011/09/amazon-and-lightning-...
really, Amazon placed a BANNER saying "go buy other books"... the editor needs to realize that changing up words and terminology can really make a huge difference on how people perceive a story...
Amazon need to increase its profit. The best way without increasing price from the already steep discount compared listing price are have better discount from huge volume publisher. Publisher balk as their profit margin will be affected. Amazon increase price due to no better term. That is purely logical business decision.
However, the extending shipping time as a punishment part from amazon is not.
(Disclaimer: i work for publisher and a writer myself)
(Edit:typo)
However, the extending shipping time as a punishment part from amazon is not.
(Disclaimer: i work for publisher and a writer myself)
(Edit:typo)
The TL:DR version
Among Amazon’s tactics against Hachette, some of which it has been employing for months, are charging more for its books and suggesting that readers might enjoy instead a book from another author. If customers for some reason persist and buy a Hachette book anyway, Amazon is saying it will take weeks to deliver it.
The scorched-earth tactics arose out of failed contract negotiations. Amazon was seeking better terms, Hachette was balking, so Amazon began cutting it off. Writers from Malcolm Gladwell to J. D. Salinger are affected, although some Hachette authors were unscathed.
Among Amazon’s tactics against Hachette, some of which it has been employing for months, are charging more for its books and suggesting that readers might enjoy instead a book from another author. If customers for some reason persist and buy a Hachette book anyway, Amazon is saying it will take weeks to deliver it.
The scorched-earth tactics arose out of failed contract negotiations. Amazon was seeking better terms, Hachette was balking, so Amazon began cutting it off. Writers from Malcolm Gladwell to J. D. Salinger are affected, although some Hachette authors were unscathed.
Luckily the justice department protected competition in ebooks so this will take care of itself...
Oh.. wait.
Oh.. wait.
Reads like a hit piece. People involved in legacy media perceive that they lack the nimbleness and cleverness of the technology industry, and they (rightly) feel threatened.
I'm as pro-tech and pro-disruption as the next entrepreneur, but come on. Amazon is an 800lb gorilla, not a start-up struggling to find traction, and if the acusations in this piece are true (and what I can find suggests they are), then that's anti-consumer behaviour: Amazon own 1/3 the entire market for books. This affects us, the consumers, and hurts authors, all because Amazon pushed for better terms and Hachette didn't want to give them.
Regardless of the company, I dislike it when tactics like this are used. Comcast's net neutrality issues are another great example.
Regardless of the company, I dislike it when tactics like this are used. Comcast's net neutrality issues are another great example.
This seems to be a very positive interpretation for Hachette, which is incidentally exactly what the article seems to push for, while claiming Amazon is acting maliciously.
The interest of authors is very clear: sell as many books as possible. They are paid a meagre sum per book (a dollar, maybe?) so they really don't care about the price other than that it is as low as possible to stimulate sales, but they have no control over pricing regardless.
Hachette, meanwhile, needs to keep prices up since any reduction would come directly from their margin, given that they pay authors a very low and fixed sum.
Amazon of course, as any other distributor, wants to get better conditions from Hachette and naturally uses its customer base to put weight behind what they are asking for. When the deal failed, they presumably had to continue buying books under, to them, unacceptable conditions, so they did two things to consolidate their losses:
1) slash discounts from Hachette books 2) buy less Hachette books
I'm not including the recommendations for other books, because if you have used Amazon at all in the last 10 years, this is just how their website functions regardless if the product at hand is a book from Hachette or a sponge.
If you want to blame someone here, blame Hachette or the relationship between traditional publishers and authors. As I've pointed out above, the interests of the two parties are not well aligned at all. Maybe it is true that Amazon pushes for deals hard to swallow for publishers, but if they are paying authors a dollar on a $10 book sale, that is hard to believe. If their overhead is that large, capitalism demands they are put out of business, and this time it is just Amazon picking up the slack, when it could have been any distributor.
The interest of authors is very clear: sell as many books as possible. They are paid a meagre sum per book (a dollar, maybe?) so they really don't care about the price other than that it is as low as possible to stimulate sales, but they have no control over pricing regardless.
Hachette, meanwhile, needs to keep prices up since any reduction would come directly from their margin, given that they pay authors a very low and fixed sum.
Amazon of course, as any other distributor, wants to get better conditions from Hachette and naturally uses its customer base to put weight behind what they are asking for. When the deal failed, they presumably had to continue buying books under, to them, unacceptable conditions, so they did two things to consolidate their losses:
1) slash discounts from Hachette books 2) buy less Hachette books
I'm not including the recommendations for other books, because if you have used Amazon at all in the last 10 years, this is just how their website functions regardless if the product at hand is a book from Hachette or a sponge.
If you want to blame someone here, blame Hachette or the relationship between traditional publishers and authors. As I've pointed out above, the interests of the two parties are not well aligned at all. Maybe it is true that Amazon pushes for deals hard to swallow for publishers, but if they are paying authors a dollar on a $10 book sale, that is hard to believe. If their overhead is that large, capitalism demands they are put out of business, and this time it is just Amazon picking up the slack, when it could have been any distributor.
They are paid a meagre sum per book (a dollar, maybe?) so they really don't care about the price other than that it is as low as possible to stimulate sales
Wrong.
We are paid a royalty which is a percentage cut of the sale price. Often a percentage of the net receipts the publisher gets for the books. So amazon's tactics come directly out of our pockets.
Hachette do not pay authors "a very low and fixed sum". We're in a profit-sharing arrangement with them. No profits for Hachette? No profits for the authors, either.
Please refrain from disseminating information on HN about a business you aren't actively involved in without first engaging in some fact-checking.
(Disclaimer: I am a full-time professional author and Hachette is one of my publishers in the UK.)
Wrong.
We are paid a royalty which is a percentage cut of the sale price. Often a percentage of the net receipts the publisher gets for the books. So amazon's tactics come directly out of our pockets.
Hachette do not pay authors "a very low and fixed sum". We're in a profit-sharing arrangement with them. No profits for Hachette? No profits for the authors, either.
Please refrain from disseminating information on HN about a business you aren't actively involved in without first engaging in some fact-checking.
(Disclaimer: I am a full-time professional author and Hachette is one of my publishers in the UK.)
Among Amazon’s tactics against Hachette, some of which it has been employing for months, are charging more for its books and suggesting that readers might enjoy instead a book from another author. If customers for some reason persist and buy a Hachette book anyway, Amazon is saying it will take weeks to deliver it.
^^ How is that a hit piece?
If the allegations are true it is disgraceful.
^^ How is that a hit piece?
If the allegations are true it is disgraceful.
>charging more for its books
Still less than the list price (set by the publisher).
>suggesting that readers might enjoy instead a book from another author
Don't they do this for every item?
Still less than the list price (set by the publisher).
>suggesting that readers might enjoy instead a book from another author
Don't they do this for every item?
Actually, the biggest item is changing availability. It is a book that is likely print on demand. Availability should always be 1-2 days tops. By moving the availability out weeks Amazon kills any purchase but the most determined buyer.
EDIT Also, if you read "The Everything Store", tactics like the above are common knowledge.
EDIT Also, if you read "The Everything Store", tactics like the above are common knowledge.
"Still less than the list price (set by the publisher)."
Amazon gets large discounts from publishers, in a case I know of larger than wholesalers or distributors get or got. It does not negotiate discounts so much as it enforces them.
Amazon gets large discounts from publishers, in a case I know of larger than wholesalers or distributors get or got. It does not negotiate discounts so much as it enforces them.
Those points are irrelevant. You claimed the article is a hit piece.
>> In a statement provided to the Guardian, Hachette US said that while it is the publisher's "normal policy not to comment on negotiations under way with any retailer", it had been asked "legitimate questions about why many of our books are at present marked out of stock with relatively long estimated shipping times on the Amazon website, in contrast to immediate availability on other websites and in stores".
Hachette said that while it is "satisfying all Amazon's orders promptly, and notifying them constantly of forthcoming publicity events and of out-of-stock situations on their website", the retailer is nevertheless "holding minimal stock and restocking some of HBG's books slowly, causing 'available 2-4 weeks' messages, for reasons of their own".
Clearly it is not.
The online shopping site has a history of adopting tough tactics during negotiations with the books industry. In 2010, Amazon removed the "buy new" buttons from Macmillan titles as the duo wrangled over terms for the price of ebooks. In 2012, it clashed with independent publishers over terms and removed thousands of independently published ebooks from sale.
>> In a statement provided to the Guardian, Hachette US said that while it is the publisher's "normal policy not to comment on negotiations under way with any retailer", it had been asked "legitimate questions about why many of our books are at present marked out of stock with relatively long estimated shipping times on the Amazon website, in contrast to immediate availability on other websites and in stores".
Hachette said that while it is "satisfying all Amazon's orders promptly, and notifying them constantly of forthcoming publicity events and of out-of-stock situations on their website", the retailer is nevertheless "holding minimal stock and restocking some of HBG's books slowly, causing 'available 2-4 weeks' messages, for reasons of their own".
Clearly it is not.
The online shopping site has a history of adopting tough tactics during negotiations with the books industry. In 2010, Amazon removed the "buy new" buttons from Macmillan titles as the duo wrangled over terms for the price of ebooks. In 2012, it clashed with independent publishers over terms and removed thousands of independently published ebooks from sale.
Almost all phenomena are best explained as a conspiracy.
total mischaracterization
They've also done this to Macmillan and Penguin, to my knowledge.
It's worth noting that the Big Five publishers in the US have a combined turnover about a fifth of Amazon's, and individually none of them are even 10% of Amazon's size. Amazon's behavior towards its suppliers is basically bullying -- this isn't just in publishing -- and they're also tax dodgers (although I note the UK treasury has finally taken steps to close the VAT loophole they were exploiting to charge their suppliers 20% VAT while paying out only 3% to the Luxembourg government).