Together against Amazon: More than 900 authors have a problem with the aggressive price pressure of the world’s biggest online retailer. Your letter of protest to appear on Sunday as full-page ad in the “New York Times”.
the background is the “Books War”, the the once famous and large through e-books become U.S. shipping portal with a publishing house Hachette supplies. Amazon pushes with controversial methods, prices for digital books, in order to undermine competitors as an established industry leader the water.
In the negotiations with Hachette Amazon fought with ruthless means. Title of the publisher were at times only to orders with long delivery times or no longer available. The button for pre-orders was unceremoniously deactivated.
The 909 writers, among them famous names like Stephen King or John Grisham, see themselves in the conflict as a hostage. In the written by bestselling author Douglas Preston protest letter it says also, Amazon carry the dispute on the backs of customers. The readers of the “New York Times” should corporate CEO Jeff Bezos said the opinion by email.
Even Disney Targeting
Just before the sales launch of the DVDs of the films “Captain America” and ” The dark fairy “from Disney Amazon has disabled the function for pre-orders in its market place. As the specialist journal “Home Media Magazine” noticed this was true for almost all Disney titles.
The situation is reminiscent of conflicts between Amazon and Time Warner and the publisher Hachette. In both cases, the shipping portal built up in this way pressure in the negotiations for a new distribution deal.
Warner films were therefore from mid-May to late June not preorder. Whether offing similar between Walt Disney and Amazon, first let not cleared up. The companies hold so far covered.
More revenue thanks to cheaper prices
Amazon countered the thrust of the author with its own open letter. Which states, inter alia, literature must be cheaper because they stand with many other media in the competition. «Books compete with mobile games, television, movies, facebook, blogs, free news websites and more.”
The company also reiterated previous calculations, which, with lower e-book prices as 9 $ 99 a lot more books would be sold as such at $ 14.99, so that writers and publishers at the end would earn even more.
Amazon also defended the much-criticized massive pressure on Hachette. The publisher had brick for three months in the negotiations, and only grudgingly dealt with the Amazon-arguments, “as we took steps to reduce the sales of their titles in our store.”
Amazon have proposed for the duration of the dispute jointly compensate the losses of the authors – Hachette but this was rejected. Readers were called in return, to send e-mails to the Hachette’s CEO.
E-Book for $ 9.99
Amazon had early set to digital books and initially dominated with prices at $ 9.99 Business in the United States. U.S. publishers took advantage of the launch of Apple’s e-book store on the iPad tablet to enforce a model patterned after the German book price fixing, in which they can dictate the price and not the dealer.
After the intervention of U.S. authorities this procedure has been tilted, and Amazon may at wholesale prices relate the books to publishers again. Hachette Holds Steady in negotiations for a new e-book deal with the required Amazon lower price at $ 9.99.
A similar dispute over the price of e-books there are in Germany. The Association of German Book Trade complained to the German Cartel Office through the online retailer. Amazon rejected the allegation to delay the delivery of printed books from the publishing group Bonnier (Ullstein, Piper, Carlsen) in the course of negotiations.
(sda / chb)
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