I really didn’t want to talk about this, but I keep getting comments and emails.
Let’s say I’m a clothes designer. I design a new line of jeans, Cute Jeans. But now I have a problem: how do I get my jeans into stores?
I’m a poor designer with no production facilities or industry contacts, so I sell the rights to produce my line to Big Label. Big Label can mass produce my jeans and has contracts in place with different store chains, like Target, Walmart, FakeMart and so on. It can pitch my design to those retailers.
Big Label prices the jeans at $12.99. Fake Mart gets the jeans and starts selling them for $7.99. Big Label asks why. Fake Mart tells it that really they make money on sneakers, and they will reimburse Big Label for the discount. In other words, they will artificially lower the price of the jeans and give Big Label $5 back. See, Fake Mart wants to have the monopoly on lowest prices and they have a line of sneakers to go with jeans and that’s where they make their money. They can afford to take a loss on the jeans.
Eventually other retailers catch on and complain. Not everyone can afford to give $5 back to Big Label and they’re getting complaints from customers, who think the jeans are now worth only $7.99.
Big Label states that it wants Cute Jeans to be sold at $12.99. Fake Mart pulls all the jeans off the shelves and starts selling Big Label’s other products at extremely deep discount, killing Big Label’s profit margin.
Irate customers complain to… designer. Who has no influence on this fight. Think about it. Would you complain to the designer that her jeans are not available in real life or would you go up to customer service at the Fake Mart and let them know you want the jeans back? And if they say no, would you drive a block over to Target and just buy the jeans there? Of course, you would. If the product isn’t available at one store, you’d go to the next one. You might bellyache about it to your family at dinner, but that’s about it.
A few facts:
1) Amazon is the retailer Fake Mart in the equation. When you guys purchased a Kindle, you purchased a device that anchored you to this particular retailer.
2) Amazon wanted a monopoly on the market, in the same way Apple for a while had a near monopoly on electronic song market. Amazon will do almost anything to keep this monopoly, including selling books at a loss to entice consumers.
3) Amazon can do basically anything with its Kindle content. Amazon can arbitrarily remove content from your devices and refund you the money and has done it before. They control the content. Not the authors. Not the publishers. Not the readers who “purchase” it. Amazon is the only entity that controls what it does with its content.
4) Amazon is trying to bully the publishers because it refuses to compete with Apple. It really can’t compete with Apple, to be honest. I-pad is a pretty, pretty thing. It’s bigger, it’s brighter, it does a multitude of things, and it’s selling like hot cakes. More, people are comfortable buying from Apple, because they are used to buying songs for their I-pod. Like it or not, I-Pad is the New Cool Thing.
Amazon makes a lot of money on selling Kindles, but really Kindle pales a bit in comparison. Amazon realizes this. It is now actively punishing Penguin by selling its paper book at extreme discount, so Penguin is taking a loss. I think they are convinced that the only way for Kindle to survive requires that Amazon must have the lowest prices ever.
That’s where the hold up is. If I bought Kindle, I would feel cheated right now. I would want to complain. But complaining to me or other authors is just not going to accomplish anything. We are losing sales because Amazon is not carrying our e-books. But we can’t make Amazon change its corporate policy. Sorry guys, we just don’t have this kind of clout.
But you do. You can email Amazon and demand to have the e-books. You are the consumers, you purchased their device in expectation of content being available to you, and they better provide that content. They are breaching their agreement with you. I’m not. And neither is my publisher, because the e-books are becoming available at other retailers.
I want you to have the ability to purchase our books on Kindle. I really, really, really do. And I’m really, really, really upset that Amazon is doing this. I just can’t actually do anything about it.
“You are greedy! Publishers are greedy! Publishers want to take advantage of consumers!”
We live in a capitalist society. A product has to make money or the company that produces it will go under. And the company has a right to set the price of its own product. The consumers have a right to buy it or not to buy it.
Publishers must make money. They make most of their money on mega bestsellers, the ones released in hardback and sold for about $25. (Most “normal” books actually are published at a loss or very slight profit.) As I understand it, under agency model these bestseller books in e-form will cost $14.99-12.99 at release time, with the price gradually dropping over time to $9.99. So if you don’t want to pay $12.99 for the e-book, wait a couple of months.
From what I’ve seen so far, mass market paperbacks are not affected. How do I know this? Because B&N is selling Magic Bleeds right now under agency model in e -form for $6.99. The mass market paperbacks are just collateral damage in this fight.
The agency model has a lot of advantages on the business end of it: for one, the six different statements for every format of e-book will now become one statement, which permits publishers to streamline the accounting. Is it a perfect solution to resolve the e-book situation? No. Of course not. But it’s a step in the right direction, away from format mess, away from artificial price fixing, and toward the same uniform price for most e-books.
Apple is a mercenary company, just like Amazon, and the publishers may well regret their decision to restructure, but some sort of restructuring must take place, because the future of books is likely to be digital.
What I would like to see, if I could wave a magic wand, is that if you purchase a dead tree book, you should get an e-book version bundled with it. Like Blue Ray and digital copies. I would like to see a service like I-tunes, which offers e-books safely and reasonably. I would like an e-book format that is universal. But I don’t have a magic wand.
Umm, so basically you’re just being mean cause you don’t like Amazon and jealous that you bought a Nook instead of a Kindle.
I kil u gud.
::laughing:: I am just glad that I have waited to buy to see how the whole reader thing shakes out because I was afraid of another Betamax/VHS mess.
Oh, sure… Lord it over us early adopters with your rational-ness!!! LOL
your DRM makes my ass look fat. i no buy.
:::ducks:::
Kil!
Oh wait, I hate DRM.
No kil!
wooot! DRM denied! :::does dance::::
DRM is of the debil. And it gives me indigestion…..
like turkey balut.
did this also sound to you like this?
*lol*
dont mind, i like the sound of paper if i turn the pages.
i hope you get enough Money for your work, ilona (this sound so weird, cause i do not know you, but Mrs. Andrews do not sound better, think), you owned it.
Uh. I don’t like Kindles (e-books generally), and the dead tree version is more readable and is less sore to eyes, so no problem!!
Thank you for your explanation!!
Thanks for a very understandable run-down on this. I haven’t yet purchased an e-book reader, and was sort of looking at the nook. What has kept me back was concern about locking in suppliers – and now I’m REALLY concerned about it!
I can understand why you use your ferocious snarly icon.
Maybe a nice long walk around the neighborhood to blow off the frustration. Or if it’s raining (probable) you could always try chocolate. 
This guy is a snarly icon
? I thought he was happy.
So I’ve been snarly when I meant to be happy? bummer. Smileys need to come with definitions.
No, sorry. This guy
is happy. I think this is snarly emiticon >(
I was talking about Ilona’s icon at the beginning of the post… first started out as snarly, scary wolf. Now it is crying wolf.
One line just stuck out to me. Amazon Kindle will pull a book and refund you the money. That shouldn’t be legal. If you buys the e-book, it should be like buying a dead tree book. They can’t randomly come to your house and steal the book back, they shouldn’t be able to do that with e-books. ::shakes head:: Not complaining to you guys, just a little stunned. And glad I haven’t bought any e-reader. Why bother when 1. I prefer holding the pretty book in my hands 2. the readers are often available for free download to your computer.
One of the books they’ve done it to? 1984.
Oh the irony!
Yes, that is Irony at its best. How many books have they done this to?
Is it possible it was because the book is now free for the public? Therefor asking money for it would be dishonest?
From what I understand, a company produced an e-book version of it and there was a snafu over rights. Amazon overnight pulled the content off the Kindles of people who’d purchased the book months ago and refunded the money. The reaction of most readers was similar to having their house robbed. They weren’t asked if they wanted their version removed. Amazon just did it.
It hammers home the point – you don’t really own the content on your Kindle. You’re kind of renting it.
They did this to some Kindle owners with the latest Kim Harrison Hollows book. It was released at the beginning of this ngightmare. Some people got the book at a higher price then what they pre-ordered at. When they complained, Amazon just pulled the book from their Kindles and refunded the $ without even asking. For this reason I rarely have the wireless active on my Kindle unless I’m actually downloading.
Just a point that Apple’s kind of done the same thing to me with iPhone Apps. They remove the app from the app store but let me keep the app locally since I already bought it. Then they provide an OS upgrade which, after installed, can have an incompatibility with the app rendering it unable to start. Voila, they’ve removed an app through normal usage of the device.
Lesson: go buy a dead tree copy in the 1st week of release to help the sales numbers as a thank you for sharing Kate!
In fairness here (speaking as a software developer), many programmers do stuff that isn’t quite ‘proper’ for the OS they’re on. I’ve been guilty of this too, though I hope not terribly often; I find ‘oh, here’s this neat feature I can add,’ and blithely ignore the fact that I’m not using the API in an approved fashion. When the next version of the OS comes out, because I wasn’t doing things in an approved manner, Stuff Breaks.
This is Microsoft’s personal nightmare, btw. They have a list of ‘must-not-break’ applications they have to test every OS build and service pack against; they’ve been forced to back things out of the OS because of some large app, before. Apple, too, had this problem with an old library called PowerPlant; a number of things written using PowerPlant stopped working right during Mac OS X updates, and so Apple had to back things out and change the OS to keep doing older/broken behavior to avoid breaking apps.
Because this /was/ a problem, Apple started demanding app developers use ONLY public API and began enforcing it; now if you use API in an unapproved or non-standard way, they’ll reject the app. This actually /alleviates/ a lot of this problem; software that sticks to using public API in approved ways is much less likely to break when Apple updates the OS, because they can do much more controlled regression testing. Of course, the restriction to public API has /also/ earned outcry as people complain that now Apple’s being too restrictive.
If they force people to stick to public API (so that apps won’t break on new OS updates), they get called restrictive and so on. Yet if they allow people to go hog-wild and use private API or non-standard functionality that isn’t part of the public, we-guarantee-to-support-this-always-going-forward functionality, then when they release a new build of the OS and unintentionally break those apps, they get accused of being malicious or careless in their testing. Yet if they pull functionality from an update, they get accused of all other kinds of evil and malfeasance. (Witness the unhappiness and general outcry and fury when they pulled the Push Notification API from early versions of the SDK.)
They’re not angels and I don’t agree with a lot of their decisions, but I think this is legitimately a situation where they can’t win. No matter what path they take, someone’s going to be unhappy.
The publishers are in a similar no-win situation in some ways; no matter what path they take, I think someone’s going to be unhappy. Distributors, readers or authors. You just have to decide which one will be unhappy, and I think in this case the right answer is ‘distributors.’ (Of course, then the unhappy distributors go and throw a tantrum and pull all the eBooks to try and get their way, and…)
But if they thought asking money was dishonest, then they shouldn’t have taken the book back, just refunded. So no, I don’t think that was it.
“1984″ in fact got pulled from my husband’s Kindle! My pre-order of Magic Bleeds disappeared from my Kindle account (like magic). I said a [bad] word and wandered right over to my ipad (birthday present from aforementioned husband who adorably ran out of other ideas) and ordered your book there. Having said all this, I still love my Kindle, love the convenience of Amazon and I’m sorry that company’s being so horrible. As a person who reads all the time, ebooks are convenient and safe – with the reduced book piles at our house, we are in less danger of tripping over a pile, falling and breaking our necks. I like not carrying 5 or 6 separate books on a trip. I’m hoping that eventually this will all shake itself out and not in a sony beta/vhs way…..
Thanks for the explanation… I’ve heard bits and pieces from various sources, but this really cleared things up. Best of luck with all that – I still depend on the traditional dead tree books and refuse to convert over (at the current moment).
The 1984 thing was totally irony and the reason I didn’t get a kindle. I read on my itouch so I can troll all the ebook stores for prices. Apple is totally gonna pull the same stunt in a year when their contract with publishers is up. I have noticed a change in some backlist titles tho. Some are more expensive than the paperbacks now AND Fictionwise/Ereader/B&N are also charging 50cents extra if a book is less than $5 for a “delivery” charge for the DL.
Oh I have no doubt that Apple is going to have the publishers by their throat. But yes, 1984 killed KIndle for me.
I’m so sorry you are caught in the middle of this mess. That seriously sucks.
The 1984 fiasco was just one of Amazon’s “Five Hundred Pound Gorilla” moves. They’ve been screwing with small press publishers, making Buy buttons disappear at whim over the last few years. When they pulled Macmillan’s Buy buttons, thereby fornicating a number of my author buddies who had new books out that week, I cast them into the Utter Darkness. They’re not linked on my sites and I mention their name only if forced to. I can understand the hardball tactics between the publishers and Amazon. I cannot forgive Amazon for messing with my readers. They’ve forgotten their purpose is to serve their customers. Off my soapbox. Yeah, this is a BIG hot button for me. Grrr….
Considering there’s a Kindle Store for the iPad now as well, yup, Amazon needs to make major improvements with content in order for kindle to be at all appealing in the future.
As a Kindle owner, this last 2 months have been torture. I am angry – angry at Amazon, angry at Apple and publishers – just because it has caused my easy life to be more difficult. Do I blame any one, no. It is capitalism at it’s finest and is completely understandable – honestly – this is how businesses run and this SHOULD be expected. I bought a Kindle at the time when there were not many choices and I needed something like it. Would I buy it today? No way, no how.
All of this will level out, just like music has. We have an undeniable ability to repeat history and now we are doing it with print.
I am now forced to buy some books from B&N and read them on my IPhone/PC as Amazon has not had a single one of my books via Kindle for 2 months now. Do I care, not so much as long as I get my books. I prefer Kindle format over B&N, but I can get over it.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I am so sorry. I felt that way about Sony – everything I wanted was somewhere else.
When I bought my Kindle about a year and a half ago, I absolutely loved it. I could get almost all of the new releases in ebook format from Amazon. I didn’t have to wait for the book to be delivered by mail or have to go to a bookstore. Now though, they either don’t release new books in ebook format at all or delay the release significantly. I didn’t notice it at first until I pre-ordered the “Inked” anthology and when release day came it was suddenly no longer available as an ebook. I figured I must have made a mistake and then ordered it via mail only to realize more than a month later that it showed up on my Kindle app for my Iphone. I sure as heck didn’t get a refund or any kind of notification. Thanks to that I downloaded a B&N app and will be getting my ebooks from them for now on.
Sorry, Nat. That sucks.
I had the same experience. I worked in a country that had, honestly people, 1 book store. (it was a small country) I bought the Kindle b/c I could download books I wanted. No more having to wait until I was home to stock up on books and then pay an arm and a leg for overweight luggage. I liked it so much that many other people I worked with now have them. But now so many of the books I “pre order” on Kindle disappear.
And to say that publishers aren’t necessary or greedy isn’t fair. I can’t imagine Amazon recruiting writers, helping them develop/ nurture, paying advances, etc.
It is unbelievable how much one can learn about the publishing idustry (or industry in general) by just reading this blog. Thank you for the input. I just hope nobody gets hurt too much in this complex process.
I like books and I like the authors and the publishers and I like amazon. I like amazon because they are so very fast in delivering my orders. And if I made a mistake, e.g. ordered the same book twice, I just send it right back. No effort. I don’t have an e-reader. First I was absolutely opposed to e-books, now I think I would actually not mind an e-reader. But I am going to wait until this format thing is sorted out. I have time. There’s no rush for me. I just hope, that everyone (authors, publisher, bookstores) survives the changes! <3
The ironic thing is, I like Amazon too – they are so convenient. I have an Amazon credit card – which I will pay off and probably cancel now, because they are making me so mad with this mess.
I am in the “thinking about” which one stage and thinking about at the pro’s and con’s of each. I would still buy the art, photo, etc. books that I LOVE TO HOLD. B&N & Apple look better (better check their fine print too!)
My God, Amazon has a lot of balls to electronically take back something you have purchased (even though refunding you your money and they may just think it is 1984 also) Is Questionable Practices in their Corporates Handbook ?!.? I believe so – in the Section called Electronic Books101.
Remember the song, “For the Love of Money”?
I agree that if you buy a paper version of a book there should be some way of accessing an e-book format. My boyfriend and I were talking about this a couple of months ago. He used to manage a cd store and was saying the same thing and that it had helped some when cds started being released with a digital content. I can only wish….
you know, I’m actually glad I got a sony. I bought it in February and in Austria you really only have the choice between sony and kindle. And I felt a bit miffed at amazon for a few different reasons… plus, the sony was cheaper. And I really don’t need the wireless connection the kindle offers. I wouldn’t be able to use it half the time anyway, since I live in a rural area in Austria and reception is iffy half the time. Plus, I already had a sony account and liked the reader-software and that I could use more than just one device (you have to registrate it, but it’s easy). And I didn’t want to depend on amazon like that…. I usually order dead tree books via amazon, cause the only other option in Austria is book depository and I haven’t had good experiences with them.
and now I’m really glad, because I can have my books (even though the e-book price in general went up) and I don’t have to support amazon in this crazy war. because if I wanted the dead tree version, I’d have to rely on amazon AGAIN….
I think what amazon is doing is WRONG. a company should try to establish a good environment for both its partners and customers and at the moment, amazon is far, far away from that.
thank you ilona for the post and the info!
I have been a huge Kindle pusher for a couple of years now. But my mom and I are both upset about not having the choice. And that is what it boils down to for me. I don’t have choice to buy the ebook at a higher price when it is available at other distributors. I emailed this to Amazon just this morning:
I am an owner of your original Kindle. I love it very much and have always been an Amazon customer and fan. I would just like to say that I would like to get kindle books available on the day they are released. I am more than happy to pay a higher price for certain authors on release day. For other authors, I will also wait until the price drops. However, I don’t even have that option now on my Kindle. I agree that the ebook pricing the publishers are setting are not ideal, but I feel cheated that I purchased the Kindle and I am unable to get books that are available from other ebook distributors. Please consider allowing the consumers to choose whether or not they pay higher prices. I would much rather the books be available.
I emailed both Amazon and Penguin to complain since right now amazon can’t sell any new ebooks because they don’t have a contract hashed out with Penguin. Both parties have to get on board and sign a contract darn it. Unfortunately it will be amazon who has to crumble, since Penguin’s agreement with Apple requires that no other seller be able to sell ebooks for less than what Apple offers them for… or so the New Yorker story and various gossip sources say…
I have pretty much accepted that I was spoiled when the kindle first came out. I used to hae to wait a year for hard cover books to go to paperback since I wasn’t willing to pay the $26. Then kindle was offering them for $9.00 and I found I was willing to pay that. Suddenly I could get any book I wanted on release day, hardcover or not. It was lovely.
Then the publishers started staggering the release of the ebook so that it came out slightly after the hardcover was released (I assume to drive more hardcover sales). I was grumpy. My pretty new things were delayed.
Now it looks like I am going to have to pay $15 for my ebooks when they do come out. I am even more grumpy… but it is nothing different than what I used to have to do before ebooks and the kindle came out — wait for the format I wanted to be released at the price I wanted. I had to wait a year for the paperback then…. I have to wait a year for the cheaper ebook now. It sucks, but what are we going to do? I just wish they would hurry up and sign the darn contracts so we can at least get our paperback-priced ebooks (like Magic Bleeds)!
Something is puzzling me. I bought all your book via e-reader.com. Now the only one who is available is Silent blade. This is not Amazon, e-reader is link to Barnes & Nobles. How come?
I have no idea. You have to ask the e-reader.
This is precisely what I was trying to explain with this post: I don’t know why retailers do things and I have no control over the retailers.
This was a really good post. Thanks for putting it up for all to read.
I had a lot more I was going to say, but I think I’m going to play it safe and just say, thanks
Also, Sony is dead to me right now. I’m just a teensy bit bitter over the untimely death of my e-reader….but that’s just me.
Thanks for the info. As the owner of a first-gen Kindle and and iPad, I have to say, the iPad is winning. However, I find myself using the Kindle app on the iPad more than iBooks. This is because I’m already invested in the Amazon platform (their plan is working) and, more importantly, because I can read my books on more devices. For example, I have the Kindle, iPad, iPhone, and laptop/desktop as options with Amazon. With iBooks, I can use the iPad and that’s it (for now).
Reading on my phone is not ideal, but for a quick few paragraphs at the doctor’s office, sure. It’s also the fact that I have the option that draws me back to the Kindle store, even though I am completely in love with the iBooks interface. That and the fact that the Kindle store is much better stocked, or at least it was, prior to the publisher fallout that’s going on now.
And that’s precisely why this whole thing is deeply upsetting to me. It’s not about books – if it was, Amazon could just sell stuff via Kindle app and laugh all the way to the bank. It’s about selling the Kindle.
I’m not sure it’s all about the Kindle. After all, if they wanted to just push the Kindle, they wouldn’t have apps for so many devices (though people are probably more compelled to get the app if they have a Kindle).
I think it’s more a fear of losing control. Before, they were the only (big) game in town. Ebooks were new(ish) and they had lots of control. Now Apple, and Google, and Barnes and Noble all want a piece of the pie. Amazon is scared and has reacted in a very childish way.
Yes, the Kindle is in trouble and it sucks that the books are suffering for it. I was tempted by the Kindle 2, and then again by the Kindle DX (I might have a thing for new shiny gadgets) but held off and waited for the iPad.
Now, unless the next Kindle does my laundry and washes dishes, I’ll probably never switch back. That doesn’t mean that I’ll stop shopping at Amazon, assuming they get the current issues worked out and keep developing their Kindle app.
I know about upsetting. I heard about the Amazon/Penguin knockdown on Gizmodo and didn’t think much of it, other than Amazon was being petty by slashing prices on dead-tree books in some sort of twisted payback.
Then, I went to check on Magic Bleeds (my precious) and found it missing from the Kindle store. Who knew that one of my favorite authors, with a book coming out this month, was part of Penguin?
Suddenly the fight got a whole lot more personal. I want my book, dammit! Amazon/Penguin, you have 19 days, 23 hours, 22 minutes, and 20 seconds… 19 seconds… 18 seconds… to get this figured out. Get crackin!
“Suddenly the fight got a whole lot more personal. I want my book, dammit! Amazon/Penguin, you have 19 days, 23 hours, 22 minutes, and 20 seconds… 19 seconds… 18 seconds… to get this figured out. Get crackin”
LOL- exactly!
I now own both, too, and I’m thrilled with the iPad because I can pretty much read any platform from it. Amazon has really made me angry over this issue, and I am astounded by the people making angry comments about publishers on their site as if Amazon is the guardian angel of the consumer. Do they think Amazon will continue to offer such low prices if they actually get the monopoly they’re pushing for? That’s not a sustainable business model. So, like going to Target for the jeans in Ilona’s example, I happily pre-ordered Magic Bleeds for the iPad this week!
But on the bright side… since I don’t have any new releases to read I finally got around to netflixxing those TV shows my friends keeping bugging me to get into. I am through Bones and into Castle and then it’s on to Supernatural. When I absolutely can’t do without a book I’ve been slowly working my way up the Dresden files, which I may not have done if I had had shiny new Nora Roberts, Jessica Andersons, JR Wards, and Lora Leighs to read.
love, love, love Bones and Castle. Great and funny characters!
I agree with Alias, these last few months have been very annoying. I really like my Kindle. I started running out of places to put bookcases and I can’t bring myself to get rid of books I have. The 80 or so books i have on my kindle take up a lot less room. : )
I really wish Amazon would settle all of this. I don’t even care if it ups the price on the book from what Amazon had it at. I am willing to pay 12-14 for a new book that is currently in hardback. If it is a book i want to read, and i was willing to pay hardback prices anyway, then paying an increased price on release is not going to bother me. I just want to be able to buy the damn book.
On another note: iPad vs Kindle/Nook. The main reason I like the Kindle as a reader is the E-Ink screen (no back light). The iPad has the LCD screen and reading text for long periods of time on an LCD makes my eyes hurt. With the Kindle/Nook, it’s just like looking at a piece of paper. The iPad can do other stuff as well obviously, but as an e-reader i think the E-Ink screens win out.
Also, thanks for the clear explanation of the current Amazon battle. I have been wondering exactly what is going on with that.
I am a nookster for that same reason. Although I-pad is on the horizon – it will be a laptop replacement for us.
Im so glad I have a nook now and decided against the kindle. *knock on wood* that the nook/b&n dont start creating any problems like this. Love my nook!
Thank you for the info! This is VERY helpful. There is so much misinformation and so many rumors floating around about what is going on. Hopefully it settles down soon!
You said somewhere that with Amazon being able to take away your books & refunding your money, having a Kindle is almost like renting the materials. Do you know if B&N can do the same thing with the Nook, or Sony with the e-reader? I would be so upset if I turned on my nook tomorrow and suddenly things were missing.
I have to say I went through a HUGE pro/con list comparison with the Kindle, Nook, E-reader, and iPad before I finally made a purchase. One of the big reasons I didn’t go with Kindle is because I was worried about Amazon tyring to corner the ebook market, and possibly doing something stupid. I felt comfortable going with B&N because they do books. That is their business. They sell books, and pretty much ONLY books. With everything else that Amazon sells, I thought that if things really hit the fan for them with ebooks, they could essentially shut down that portion of their business, and still be successful. That scared me. The potential lack of stability was not worth it to me.
Now, I have to admit that when prices on ebooks went up, I cried a little. It took me awhile to be okay with spending the same amount of money on an ebook as I would on a paperback. (mostly because on the nook you don’t get a large pretty color picture of cover art.) With hardcover books, I look at it this way: Would I pay $25 for an ebook? NO That is ridiculous to me. Would I spend $15… maybe, who is the author, how much do I really want the book? Am I willing to wait 6 months and then pay only $9. At least different options are available to me.
Thank you for always providing so much information on the wonderful world of publishing!!
This is exactly why I bought a nook instead of a Kindle. When I looked at everything I said to myself “Which company will care if something happens with this thing” Hands down Barnes and Noble. Book are their thing, they listen to their customers. I have sent suggestions for updates for newer versions and I actually get responses. Amazon is so huge with so many different areas and vendors I think Kindle gets lost in the shuffle. I would be really upset if I were a kindle owner right now.
I agree with Jon, while it was nice to be able to get ebooks on Amazon for cheaper, I liked the fact that I could get the book release day without leaving my house more (yes I am that lazy). I am on a budget like everyone else and gone are the days that I could justify to myself paying $26 for a book. Paying $15 or $16 for a book would be like going to costco and thats perfectly fine with me.
I aslo agree with the article in the New Yorker, that since I got my ereader I have definately ordered and read more books than I normally would. If I had to do it over I would have waited to get something that would allow me to download from multiple sources. At this time the question is now iPad vs. Slate. Time for more research.
I had no idea about Amazon doing this. I always wounder why there books were half the price. I do have to buy 90% of the books I read online. Where I live we have books a million, walmart, and target. I do go look at all 3 before I but online tho but as I said 90% of the time they don’t carry the books that I want.
I’ll have to fine some where else to shop online now. Any good places that y’all know of? I don’t do e books for a few reasons 1 I love the feel of a book and 2 things like that give me headaches.
OUCH! I am so sorry all you electronic book people are having such a time. I really love ACTUAL books…the smell, the feel, the fact that I own them. I will never reach for them on my bookshelf and find they have dissipated into the ether. I also like getting them signed or gifting them to my friends. When I introduced my sister to Kate, I bought her a new copy. “…because the future of books is likely to be digital” scares the fool out of me! I can’t read for long periods on a computer screen. I hope this issue is resolved for all the electronic book people because, at the end of the day, its all about a good story.
Comparing the iPad to the Kindle: I can read any book I have on my Kindle in the bright sunlight outside, on a gorgeous day. The glare from the iPad screen in that same situation leaves the view, well, un-viewable (yes, totally made that word up).
I AM pissed…I’m pissed at Apple for backroom deals, pissed at the publishers, and really pissed at Amazon for taking their ball and going home, instead of trying to act like adults and make it work for their customers. I’m also pissed at DRM and the legalities associated with it.
Who am I NOT pissed at? My favorite authors who are being royally screwed in this whole situation. On one hand, their book is unavailable in a HUGE market, and on the other, they’re getting smacked by their readers.
But I digress…I have found a way. Might not be legit, but I’m buying the books legally, and reading them the way I want.
*looks around warily*
I wanted to add…if the Nook had come out a few months earlier, I would have one instead of the Kindle.
When I went to the apple store they said that they had a cover (extra of course) that would mitigate the glare in direct sunslight. I couldn’t however take it outside to try it out LOL. Guess I’ll have to take their word on it.
Ilona,
Yep, I’ve been getting bombarded with emails too, most are very understanding. Thank you for putting all of this mess into one concise, easy-to-understand post. I’ll be linking to it from all of my cyberspace homes. ; )
Can’t wait for Magic Bleeds! Want to do a promo on my site the week before release? The week of? I’d love to have you & Gordon guest blog!
Hugs!
Lisa
I’m wondering if someone is telling people to email authors because it really doesn;t make sense otherwise.
Eee! Thank you, I would love to guest blog.
My guess is that people are emailing authors because 1) they know you guys; 2) you have easy-to-get-to contact information; 3) they don’t understand how little control authors have over the selling part of the equation. Unfortunately, y’all are the visible front line of this whole mess. I’m sorry that you’re getting bombarded when there’s not a darned thing you can do.
Nice explanation. Between your commentary & Lili Saintcrow’s, it does sound as if the agency model works better for authors. As much as I like some books from indie & e-publishers, I definitely want NY publishers & their authors to continue to release content as well. Variety is good….
After starting out reading ebooks on my ipaq pda and the computer screen, e-ink screens were wonderful and worth the slower page turns etc. I love my sony reader, which encouraged my husband to get one. We now read on our android phones as well. We’ve both looked at the Kindle and the Nook, but haven’t bought into their flavor of DRM due to the 1984 issue and the added DRM level that B&N adds to their epub books so that they’re only readable on the Nook and not one of the other adobe epub reading-capable devices available.
Despite the 1984 issue, Kindle has been slightly more appealing to me since some of the authors that I read in previous years have been testing the ebook waters by releasing their backlist books there. Some have discussed releasing through smashwords as well so maybe those stories eventually will be available in more than just the kindle format.
Now that Kobo books has released a $150 e-ink device & Sony has countered by lowering the PRS 300 price to $150, I hope that some retailers will wake up and realize that content not device should be the issue. Kobo claims to want its content available to be read with their program on any device which was where Fictionwise was heading until purchased by B&N. Kindle and B&N appear to be heading this way as well but haven’t yet released Android reading programs.
Enough said, back to lurking. Coffee calls and cats need to be fed before they call PETA.
Beth
Yes, thank you! The content and not the device is precisely it.
Thanks for taking the time to explain the situation- you should write a blog or something! -gasp- Amazon has had increasingly bad press lately…Not ranking or selling certain books, and now this. Very discouraging.
This makes me very glad that I hesitated before jumping on the mobile e-reader bandwagon. I do mainly read ebooks (via microsoft ereader) and would LOVE to have some mobile device, but I’m not sure which route to take. Suggestions, anyone?
Presure, that why the writters are being to put more presure on the publishers to fold.
Paper books are the best, while audio CD are great for the drive to work
I use the borders e book store sometimes because I don’t need an e-reader to download the books to my laptop. The only thing I really hate about it is you can’t easily make back up copies of the books like you can with ones that are in adobe format.
Ilona – Wow- I love how you and Gordon write and I know that I asked about what the Kindle rant you mentioned in yesterday’s post was about but I really didn’t expect this.
Frankly I’m a little shocked by some of what you said and I don’t believe that it’s completely accurate. First the book that Amazon sold and then removed from the Kindle devices was a book that they did not have the proper license to sell and they were told by the lawyers of the party that did, either remove it or face litigation in court. They took the route of least resistance and removed the book from Kindles and they also reimbursed the purchasers. If you’re in line at Target to purchase something and their legal team decides it has to be pulled immediately, they too will not sell it to you. Amazon also apoligized to the purchasers and this happened years ago.
Second the issue with pricing is a business decision, any retailer has the right to choose what price they sell any product at. A hardcover book at $25 is mostly about profit for the publisher and not profit for the retailer. I find the comment that you made about Penguin interesting considering that when a certain book I wanted came out, it was not available anywhere in ebook format for about a week, I wrote an email to Penguin about when the book would be avaialble in ebook format and their response (which took almost 2 weeks to be issued to me) stated that they were in the process of opening their own ebook store and hoped I came back to look for it later. A week later the book did become available at B&N and is still not available at Amazon and I’m not blaming Amazon but I am blaming Penguin- they clearly have no concern for the purchasing public by choosing to make this a war instead of a discussion. By the way- there is no guarantee that they won’t run into this problem next year when their contract with Apple is up since they only signed a one year pricing contract. I frankly look at the Ipad as an experiment by Apple in the book business and will be interested to see what happens with that product (overpriced) in the future.
The publishing industry as a whole is in major need of a wake up call, if Amazon is the catalyst- so be it. Perhaps if the publishers had spent some money looking to the future (instead of giving their CEO’s large bonuses) they would have realized that the Ebook would be a prominent player in the book business, agreed upon a standard user friendly DRM model (yes- have to protect against piracy) and driven the business themselves, they would not be facing the business problems that they have on top of an angry public.
Also- shame to any reader who writes angry, hateful emails or letters to authors who have no control over pricing issues what-so-ever. Very few authors have the mega income that is popularized by the news media, most work a full time job on top of writing.
Don’t mean to offend anyone and I don’t let what a publisher or retailer does influence my decision to purchase a book or not. If I have to buy it in paper form, I will. If I need to purchase more than one Ebook reader- I’ll do that too.
Maria,
I have to respectfully disagree.
“If you’re in line at Target to purchase something and their legal team decides it has to be pulled immediately, they too will not sell it to you. Amazon also apoligized to the purchasers and this happened years ago.”
If you buy something at Target and then they find they may have legal issues, will they come into your home and take the item and leave money on the nightstand? No. They’ll just have to fight it out in court, because it was their own fuax pas, not yours or mine. Maybe you don’t mind having things taken from you without your consent after you purchased them, but I do. This is what happened and it happened as recently as April with the newest Kim Harrison. You can read about on the Kindle forum, if you wish.
“Don’t mean to offend anyone and I don’t let what a publisher or retailer does influence my decision to purchase a book or not. If I have to buy it in paper form, I will. If I need to purchase more than one Ebook reader- I’ll do that too.”
IMO, amazon exploits the fact that Kindle-users depend on them. If you are in the happy position to be able to debate buying different e-book-readers, that’s good for you. But I think most e-book-reader-owners made an investment that maybe they couldn’t easily afford…, but they thought it would be worth it because of the advantages. Now, if the company minimizes the advantages you initially had by buying an e-book-reader…. where does that leave you as costumer? Since I’m in Austria and I only had the choice between kindle or sony, I didn’t look into the alternatives, like nook and so on… but as far as I know, there is no e-reader available under about 150 $ and that’s really the cheapest option. That’s not exactly peanuts!
I think that kindle-owners (and other e-reader owners for partially different reasons) are not happy campers now, because they made an investment and now they don’t get what they have been promised.
Look, if I buy a car with some features that really convince me that the car will be a great investment, the manufacturer can’t just disable certain features a year afterwards. I bought it fair and square and I want what I paid for.
Thank you for the explanation and sorry to hear that you’re getting bombarded with complaints.
I may now go out and get the i-Pad. I played with one and decided it was pretty but didn’t really solve any new problems for me. If I can’t get digital content for my Kindle, then suddenly the i-Pad is looking much more enticing. I travel almost every week on business and I don’t want to go back to carrying an extra 20 pounds of books. Now I just need to solve the keyboard issue… I like me some real plastic keys to pound on.
Thanks Ilona for addressing this.
As a Kindle owner for almost a year now, it’s really frustrating that all this is happening but more than the inconvenience of not being able to get the books I want on my e-reader is what it’s doing to authors.
I was really dissappointed that Lisa Shearin’s latest wasn’t available on release day on Kindle, since the nearest bookstore that carried it was 45 minutes away – but I wanted to support Lisa so the next day I drove the hour and a half to get a paper copy and bring it home.
It stinks that the people that are being hurt are the ones with the least control over the whole process but Amazon drama or no, on May 25th I’m purchasing Magic Bleeds, whether it be paper copy, or B&N e-book.
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Ilona –
Thanks for the explanation. I work for an educational publisher, and our books are sold on the wholesale model. (Retailer pays a percentage of list price for the books–NET price, and then decides to sell them for whatever they want to sell them for.) I assumed that was how all of them worked. So I was completely confused why it mattered to Penguin (or any publisher) what Amazon sold their books for… since they get the same amount (net price) regardless of whether Amazon takes a hit by selling a book for less than what they paid for it.
But if the majority of fiction is sold under an agency model, wherein the publisher and retailer each get a percentage of what the retailer sells for, then the snits on both sides make more sense.
But as to the idea that Amazon is the BIG BAD here and Penguin is just defending its rights… I’m not so sure. I think they’re both acting like spoilt brats, to be honest. I can go to Target and buy any paperback they sell for at least 20% off list. I get coupons from B&N and Borders every week ensuring that I can almost always get books for 30-40% off list. And, while I absolutely understand that printing costs (and returns, and destruction costs) are only a percentage of publishing a book — after all, I have been part of overhead on several published books myself — they are costs that are NOT incurred in e-books.
Now, under the new agreements, I have to pay full list price for a lot of my e-books, when if I went out and bought them in dead tree format, I would pay less. That’s bollucks.
Here’s my take on it — I’m not demanding rock-bottom prices for my e-books. What I’d like, though, is to pay the same amount for them as I would ACTUALLY pay for the dead tree books. Not the same amount that I would THEORETICALLY pay for them (aka list).
So, does it make more sense, especially with e-books, to go to a wholesale model, in which the publisher (and author) receive a set amount for each copy sold, and the retailer chooses how much to sell it for (and thus, how much profit to make)?
It’s an interesting debate.
P.S. If I hadn’t gotten my Kindle 1 year before the Nook came out, I probably would have gotten it… but until all this mess shakes out, I’m not certain that we can say for sure that any of the ereaders is the winner yet.
“But as to the idea that Amazon is the BIG BAD here and Penguin is just defending its rights… I’m not so sure. I think they’re both acting like spoilt brats, to be honest. ”
Agreed.
Sorry, didn’t read all the comments so I don’t know if this has already been mentioned. Can’t you just buy a e-copy from let’s say Fiction Wise or somewhere and then convert it to whatever you need for your particular device. There are free converters out there on the net.
This doesn’t solve the whole Amazon/Publisher/Kindle/ problem but at least you can use your Kindle/Nook or whatever. It will just take a little bit more effort.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it no, because the files are protected- DRM. That means that to run it through a converter program- should it successfully convert- is illegal. That’s what I was told.
So, you can only do that with unprotected, which usually means it’s an indie author and therefor isn’t affected by any of this.
The converter isn’t the illegal part…you have to strip the DRM BEFORE you run it through a converter, and THAT is the illegal part. It’s also a pain in the…
Now, will the FBI come to your house because you did this and you put it on your device? Probably not (I said probably, not certainly).
But they will come after you if you serve that file up for others to download for free (i.e., piracy).
Depending on where you live, it might not be illegal. In my country it is legal to copy, convert … your book as long as it is a private copy. You can let your children read it, since that’s in “small family environment”. My cousin reads the same books I do. We both have a Sony reader. We’re converting all our LRF’s to EPUB’s. However I can’t ask for his already converted book since that’s not legal. It pisses me off a bit because I spend about an our getting each EPUB in working order. That’s a lot of time.
P.S. Sorry for spelling errors. Not a native speaker
You know, I agree with your magic wand wish. Recently I have wished really hard to be able to buy a paper book, and then also have access to the e-book for free. I like the portability of the ebook, and being able to read on my blackberry and Nook and computer screen, but at the same time I want a physical book to have and cherish. Especially for my favorite authors, or book series that I already have in physical book form. I hope that comes true, it would be awesome.
Some publishers do actually bundle (it used to be a CD, not sure exactly how it works now) both hard and soft copies. Baen is the example I’m thinking of. Here’s hoping more publishers take that route!
Of course, they probably know they’re selling me multiple copies if they don’t – books I really like end up on my Kindle (soon to be iPad) and in hard copy on my shelves. I’ve noticed others with the same habit…
I do exactly the same thing. I buy morre ebooks now, but favorites still end up with a place on my paperback shelve.
As someone who is allergic to paper (literally), I should have jumped on the bandwagon and gotten some type of e-reader. I’ve converted to reading the vast majority of work-related materials electronically, but I just can’t force myself to change my ways when it comes to books that I read for pleasure. I’ll continue to don gloves and curl up with a good book and re-arrange my bookshelves to find a way to store more “keepers.” Unlesss my house burns down, I control access to my books and don’t have to depend on batteries or hardware. I’m just a dinosaur that way! That doesn’t mean that I am not sympathetic to your cause–I just don’t have a dog in the hunt!
Whilst I am certain Amazom are trying to corner a market I feel your description lacks one important fact. Amazon are NOT competeing with Mom & Pop Books…They are competeing with Barnes & Noble, Sony and Apple, they are not exacly unable to do the same. They CAN afford to compete. If they did it would be a stalemate and eventually normal pricing would resume. The same thing happened with the airline price wars in the 70s when it became cheaper to fly from London to New York than to get a cab to the airport.
BTW Loved Magic Bites
(Can’t disagree without kissing up afterwards 
)
Agreed.
No kissing up necessary but much appreciated.
Thank you for this information. I’ve read so many different angles of this issue at this point, my eyes feel like they are going to start bleeding, but this was a new one and I’m glad for the insight.
I bought the Kindle because 1. I’m seriously running out of room on my shelves and I have no room for more shelves. 2. I wanted an E-ink reader that wouldn’t hurt my eyes…I spend enough time in front of the computer screen as is. 3. I liked Amazon’s prices and the Kindle’s basic functionality and Kindle *had* (past tense) a really large catalog of titles to choose from.
In my mind, paying more then $10 for an e-book meant that I’m really paying for publishing costs that don’t apply to e-books. (I read a break down on a website that lead to this opinion…I’d post a link but I lost it when my ‘puter crashed…according to this website authors didn’t get hurt by readers *not* paying more then $10, but publishers would have to start changing things, which, I figured, is going to have to happen either way)…
That being said, when I bought the Kindle, I knew that because e-readers are new technology that I’d have to deal with some issues while the kinks got worked out. I had thought those kinks would have more to do with waiting for one standard e-book format and options like folders, but now I realize it’s really that I need to suck it up and be okay with paying $12-$14 for some new releases or wait a bit. I get that now. Unfortunately, my epipheny is not going to be the cog that get’s Amazon’s ball rolling…
As far as why people are asking the authors (not saying they should, just offering up a “why”)…
1. because we’re more likely to get an honest answer. Case in point, this blog post. If we ask the publishers, you get an answer with their best interests in mind. If we ask Amazon, same thing. The authors that I read are the interests that most concern me because they also serve my own. If the authors are happy, they write good books and I can read them. If the author is unhappy…we run the risk of opening up a book to find our favorite character has suddenly, tragically, and unexpectedly been killed in chapter 3 and then there’s no more Kate & Curran.
2. Because when you bring up this issue on the Kindle forum, you subject yourself to an ugly linch-mobbing. It really does get nast over there. Someone says, “*sigh*…I wish Amazon would fix their issues with Penguin so I can read new-shiny-book on my Kindle next week.” and 10 people reply with various versions of, “you’re an idiot and you don’t know anything.” We feel at a loss, needing to be heard. So I guess some readers thought to try the authors. We tend to think that if you can write an awesome super-hero type then maybe you *are* an awesome super-hero type and therefor you can save us! It’s not logical, but there it is in a nutshell.
At the end of the day, we’re all just hoping Kate will go shake her sword at Amazon and fix it.
Thanks for the time you took to post this and inform us.
I am so sorry
. I hope Penguin and Amazon get some sort of agreement soon. Sorry. 
Its not only Kindle affected. Kate Daniels back catalogue has vanished from Books on Board and A1 books – and Magic Bleeds is not there for pre-order. Fictionwise, B & N, etc will not sell to me because I am in the UK and they can apparently trace the origin of the credit card when I lie about my residency.
I pre-ordered a hard copy from Amazon UK even though I would vastly prefer the ebook to match my other 3, but since I pre-ordered the status has changed from ‘available to pre-order’ to ‘Currently unavailable. We don’t know when or if this item will be back in stock’. I will not order from Book Depository because the other times this has happened they have accepted my pre-order, charged my card at the time of order and then failed to supply the book on the release date. At least Amazon don’t charge until dispatch.
I have no idea if I will be able to get Magic Bleeds on the release date despite the fact I would pay TWICE the rrp – if someone would only take my money.
I am depressed now *sigh*
I think that’s actually is a separate issue that has to do with geographical distribution. Something about buying things in another country without paying proper taxes… I don’t know a lot about it and I hesitate to talk more, since I am not quite sure I would give you accurate info.
Sorry Ilona – I muddied the waters with my personal circumstances. My point (albeit obscure) was that the independent e-book stores such as Books on Board, A1, Diesel Books etc are still wrangling with the big 5. Diesel is even blogging on their progress (or lack thereof
)
It’s a tense situation all around.
:shakes fist in the large conglomerates direction: I so don’t need this mess so close to release. Sort it out already.
I miss fictionwise club.
1) This statement is completely untrue. I have a kindle. I can and do buy books from many ebook retailers. In truth, I rarely buy ebooks from amazon.
2)This is just silly. There have been and always will be other ebook readers out there. This is hardly a monopoly.
3)This is also completely untrue. Amazon took an ebook that someone illegally put up for sale off of its servers so people were no longer able to access the book. They gave anyone who paid for this illegal book their money back and took steps to make sure that it wouldn’t happen again. I have tons of books on my kindle that have nothing to do with amazon. *I* control the content on my kindle. Not amazon.
4) Amazon has come to agreements with other publishers, Penguin is the only one who is holding out. So that kind of makes it look like they want something unreasonable that the other publishing houses haven’t asked for since amazon has come to agreements with them even if it wasn’t what amazon originally wanted.
I have had a kindle for almost 2 years and I love it. I use it every day. I read twice as much now as I ever did before and I have become exposed to authors and books that I would have probably have never read before I started reading on a ereader. That includes the amazing Ilona Andrews books.
I think it sucks that people are blaming the authors but for you to post information that is just not true, like amazon being able to remove books from my kindle and me only being able to buy books from amazon, sucks just as much.
Hopefully for everyone they get this straightened out soon. I would love to read about what happens with Kate and Curran but I won’t be doing it unless I can do it on my kindle.
Renee, you’re completely entitled to your opinion and it is also completely your right as a consumer to purchase or not purchase the product.
I didn’t want you to feel that your comment was ignored. I read it. I’m just not going to argue with you about it.
Oh good.
I don’t want to argue with you either and thanks for taking the time to reply. To be honest, I didn’t really expect that you would. I just wanted to comment on a couple things that I don’t believe are true. Thats all.
As a fellow Kindle owner…if you’ve found a way to read these e-books legally on the Kindle- I’d love to hear all about it!
If, however, you’re talking about non-DRM protected material? Please clarify, because that’s not at all what this post was about.
“This is also completely untrue. Amazon took an ebook that someone illegally put up for sale off of its servers so people were no longer able to access the book.”
At least 4 different Kindle owners reported having the newest Kim Harrison taken off of their Kindle. I’m not in their home so I can’t say whether or not they were lying but considering Kindle reps responded to those posts, it’s not likely.
Thanks for the info. I had been considering getting Kindle but certainly not now I know it is joined at the hip with Amazon. I don’t agree with the way they conduct business, the way they treat those in the industry, or the misleading ‘special deals’ they offer.
I just spent more on postage than the cost of three books that were supposed to be shipping free. I would have prefered to get these books from a bookstore, preferably an independant one, but I was using a gift cert and didn’t have the choice. I received five different excuses as to why I couldn’t have this deal, despite making sure all the books were included in the offer.
So I will not be buying Kindle, or anything else that might have to be locked in to Amazon.
Well, this helped a lot. I admit I am upset with Amazon and Penguin. Never occurred to me to be mad at an author. Since some of my fav authors books are hardbacks it makes a lack of space even more of a problem. Like others on here I have run out of room for books and my son gave me a Kindle DX for Mothers Day/Birthday. I admit I got spoiled because there is no waiting for the book to be mailed. I have waited for Lisa Shearin and Charlaine Harris new books to be avaliable for Kindle. Now I need to make a decision on getting my fav books. Thanks for taking the time to talk about this.
I normally get your books in audio and dead trees text. I have yet to bow to ebook reader pressure though the fact I can read books from the library on one is a good thing and is tempting me. (Something I could not do if I bought a Kindle, vs Nook or Sony). I have a natural dislike for Monopolies of any sort. Apple, IBM, Sony, Amazon, B&N, Walmart, it does not matter to me, when one company controls an industry it is bad for the consumer. Monopolies arrise but they really hurt the economy in the long run. Amazon tried to control the publishers by cornering the market, but I still buy my books (dead trees) at the box stores (BN, Walmart, Borders) since the old fashioned ‘family owned bookstores’ have almost disappeared.
What I am worried about is Amazon’s ownership of Audible.com. I love that formatting, The ease of having a set amt to get two audio books a month…but if Amazon plays games in that market I will have to buy from Apple.
You would think a store who wants the public to ignore the avaliblility of Pirated versions of a book or album or movie would not jerk customers around like this. (Pirates make me mad. They steal from authors, even if they personally don’t make a profit. But that is another rant for another day.)
Well…I have given you my money when I bought your books and I have given you my money when I REPURCHASED the same books in e-format on amazon. *shrug* This is my perogative. Buying a Kindle doesn’t lock you into a single format. In fact I mostly buy my ebooks from other sites that happen to be competitors, the biggest two being fictionwise.com(yes, B&N nook fans! B&N hooks us kindlers up too!) and samhainpublishing.com. iPad fan? Great! My personal opinion is for the Kindle and my BIL loves his Nook. The world still turns. I love your stories. I love ebooks. I have not purchased a paper book since September of 2008. If you would like to continue to recieve my money the ball is in your court…continue to offer it in e-format. But don’t insult my intelligence by saying that the cost of making and profit is equal for paper versus e-format. I will not buy it for $25.00, so sure I can wait. Please and thank you.
That is a lovely rant, Toni, but it shouldn’t be directed at me. I don’t offer any books to you, I don’t set the prices, and I don’t control availability of them.
In other words, I can’t help you.
All I can do as an author is to sell e-rights to my publisher which is what I have done.
PS. I just want to also quickly say that I think it is utterly redonkulous (that’s a word!) for people to create bad reviews based solely on the fact that they think the book cost too much. That is totally childish. I’m done. Thank you.
My favorite ones are: I bought this graphic novel and I thought it was a book, so I am giving it 1 star.
Dudes. It says graphic novel in description.
Can I ask a random question?
Go for it.
LOL. U know what? I’d probably buy a book consisting entirely of reviews like that for the LOLs and to remind my son why school is important
You couldn’t make it up…
Random question number two:
You’re a writer couple, but people still refer to you as a single entity. Is that wierd or annoying at all?
We R the Borg. Resistance is futile.
The only time I get annoyed is when people overlook Gordon because he is less active on-line. But now he’s addicted to facebook, so that ought to change.
You kind of learn to compromise on a lot of things: your name, your work, your sanity …
Sanity is overrated…..
hehe. *nasal voice on* Being sane is so passé