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Malcolm Gladwell Vs. Amazon

The New York Times is doing a good job of keeping readers updated about the Amazon vs. Hachette controversy. David Streitfeld and Melissa Eddy speculate that Amazon.com might be squeezing publishing to fund its expansion plans elsewhere. Excerpt: It’s no coincidence that the confrontation with Hachette in the United States — and Bonnier in Germany […]

The New York Times is doing a good job of keeping readers updated about the Amazon vs. Hachette controversy. David Streitfeld and Melissa Eddy speculate that Amazon.com might be squeezing publishing to fund its expansion plans elsewhere. Excerpt:

It’s no coincidence that the confrontation with Hachette in the United States — and Bonnier in Germany — comes as Wall Street is getting a little restless with Amazon. The retailer has been doing its best to tighten its business, including raising the cost of its Prime membership program. It chopped the royalty rate for self-published audio books. And publishers and customers say books on the site are getting more expensive. (Amazon has hotly denied this.)

At the same time, however, Amazon is restlessly expanding. It is paying HBO $300 million for the rights to stream shows like “The Sopranos” for free to Prime customers. It was reported on Thursday to be introducing a streaming music service this summer. There are new warehouses galore. An Amazon phone is a persistent rumor. All of this development takes money, so even with the tightening, Amazon is barely making a profit.

Read on to see how Amazon is ticking Germans off by its attempt to undercut the German book pricing law. Excerpt:

“The use of its market position to purposely delay delivery of books from selected publishers in order to pressure them to accept their demands for conditions is not only a threatening sign for the book industry, but a clear affront to those who read and buy books,” wrote a group of some 880 independent booksellers and publishers, members of a loose organization that calls itself the Booksellersmeeting in protest against Amazon’s action.

The megaselling author Malcolm Gladwell, whose publisher is Hachette, held his tongue for a while, but finally spoke out against Amazon today. Gladwell says his book sales have fallen off the cliff since Amazon struck Hachette — and that he doesn’t understand why a company that he’s sold millions of books through over all these years would treat him like this. Excerpt:

I’ve had the position I need to respect the rights of these two parties to negotiate. I didn’t think to insert myself. But if this keeps going, the authors are going to have to get together. It’s Hachette now, but I don’t think anyone is under any illusions it stops with Hachette.

No, of course not. But what can authors do? Amazon has a stranglehold on US book retailing nowadays. The power, it seems to me, is not in the hands of authors, but of book-buyers.

I’ve always thought of Amazon as the good guys. I no longer think of Amazon as the good guys.

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