Battle Won, Macmillan Returns to Amazon.com
During the dispute, Amazon.com had stopped offering new copies of many Macmillan titles, allowing sales only through third-party sellers. Finally, however, Amazon.com caved in to Macmillan. Macmillan wanted the right to set the prices for e-books in stores, giving retailers a cut of the price. Amazon.com however, wanted to continue its one-size-fits-all policy of $9.99 per e-book.
However, with the introduction of the iPad, Amazon.com seemingly lost a lot of its power. In fact, many consider the Kindle is and will continue to be a better device for reading than the iPad could ever be, but the iPad has Apple’s market power behind it.
Macmillan’s model is known as the “agency model.” E-books will be priced from $12.99 to $14.99 when first released. Prices will change over time. It is widely believed that Macmillan and other publishers have agreed to a similar pricing structure with Apple.
Other publishers, such as Hachette, have also made similar demands of Amazon.com. It’s an interesting battle, when one considers an analogy. After all, who tells Target how much they can sell toilet paper for?
Related posts:
