From: Book Patrol ~ Amazon’s Next Price War?
Amazon’s New Rule:
Any book listed on Amazon must be sold at the same price or cheaper than it appears on any other website including the booksellers’ own websites.
Any bookseller found in violation is subject to removal from the marketplace.
New Rule? You are telling me The Independent Online Booksellers Association who should know all about the existing contracts out there thinks this is a new rule? Where have they been?
I have heard about this for at least a year or more now. You guys all know I am NOT an Amazon Kindle fanboy. Apple yes, Amazon NO.
There is nothing new about this. Any Publisher asking Amazon to sell their stuff is told simply they cannot sell their stuff at a lower price on their own website.
They sign the contract and Amazon agrees to sell their eBooks or they walk away. Either option is theirs to take. It’s not like like Amazon got them to sign and has this stuck like a gotcha somewhere in the fine print to point out at a later date.
I don’t get the panic and alarm here. A small Publisher wants to sell their eBooks in the largest eBook marketplace (Which the Amazon Kindle and it’s apps still is.) then they play by Amazon’s rules nothing says they have to sign that contract.
Amazon is not a charity and they do not want to be under priced any more than the Publishers did last Christmas. I can understand why they would do this and I bet you they do it on more products than just the eBooks. Dead Tree Publishers fought for the Agency Model and forced all the retailers to sign on for the same business reasons so I say you made your “non-compete clause” bed now lay in it.
This may not be fair to sellers but it’s not like any of this is fair to the customers now either and sorry but paying over 10 bucks for an eBook is way too high.
Tags: Kindle
kirsten saell wrote,
I’ve always hated that clause in Amazon’s contract. It drives consumers to the sales venue that is the absolute LEAST profitable for publishers (because Amazon’s discount is pretty much the highest out there).
It’s like being locked in a cage with a tiger–publishers are stuck handing the tiger the food from their own bowl because they feel they have no choice, which means the tiger just gets bigger and stronger, while they get skinnier and weaker. Eventually, the publisher will either starve or the tiger will eat them. But they still do it, because it’s the only way to deal with a tiger, right?
Link | June 5th, 2010 at 11:54 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Right, but see the Publishers are accusing Amazon of playing the same game they did with the agency model. I would have more sympathy if anyone was actually blameless.
Unfortunately the only one no one cares about seems to be the customer.
Link | June 5th, 2010 at 1:34 pm