Amazon Refund Settlement

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ios

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'Fraid I didn't see it elsewhere, so I hope I am not repeating it. Link: Amazon offers ebook refunds in price-fixing settlement


Thoughts? First, will this hurt the vendors? I'm not sure how this is set up, accounting wise, but I hope it doesn't force them to be out operating money even temporarily.

Second, how will this affect the (specific) publishers in the same way?

Third, what do you think this means for the future of pricing and availability of ebooks from the commercial publishers? Will they start waiting to publish ebooks until the mass market comes out?

Jodi
 

ios

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James D. Macdonald

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Third, what do you think this means for the future of pricing and availability of ebooks from the commercial publishers? Will they start waiting to publish ebooks until the mass market comes out?

The people who are going to be hurt first are the self-published authors. All they have going for them is price, and when Amazon starts dropping the prices of e-books from major publishers to rock-bottom levels in an effort to drive those publishers out of business, you'll see the self-publishers unable to compete.

Then, when the other publishers go out of business, you'll see even more authors get hurt.
 

mscelina

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True. And through it all, Amazon will continue to grow until it's like Mecha-Streisand with Trapper Keepers, stomping all the little publishers under its giant feet and edging dangerously close to violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust act.
 

ios

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The people who are going to be hurt first are the self-published authors. All they have going for them is price (snippy)

I agree with you on the issue of price. I got in a debate on another forum about the whole "free book" idea, and the more I thought it about, the more I am convinced basing one's marketing or selling point only on price . . . sucks. It sucks major. By that I mean, the only reason you are in business is because you can undersell the other person. That's full of suckitude to me, because it's either a race to the bottom or it's used to kill competition so you can jack up prices once competition is RIP. Well, okay, maybe there are other reasons, too, but it feels all so sucky.

However, I do believe the self-publishers who are successful are the ones that have quality product in addition to a good way of reaching the market. Quality and self-publishing is not mutually exclusive. While there is a high tolerance for crap at the free level, there isn't as much at, say, the $5 level.

Jodi
 

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ios, I doubt that Jim was suggesting that all self published books lack quality: he's self published lots of his own work. My take of what he wrote was that self published writers rarely have the sales and marketing backup that writers with trade publishers do, so price is one of the few areas in which they can outplay them.
 

Filigree

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This whole case has been a nightmare to follow. The DOJ has no clue what is actually happening here.

If I wanted to sign with Amazon and self-publish, I would have done that. I didn't want my books in the same pipeline as a million pieces of rushed-to-market self-pubbed crap - that in the old days would have been confined to Lulu or shoeboxes under someone's bed.

I can't compete with the popularity contest of 5-star review farms and manipulated rankings. Not without the infrastructure and marketing power of an established press. Or several. I'm not a social media butterfly, or an SEO huckster.

I'm not happy with the way the Big Six have already cannibalized smaller markets. What happens when Amazon swallows them up? That won't be free and fair competition for any of us.
 

merrihiatt

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If I wanted to sign with Amazon and self-publish, I would have done that. I didn't want my books in the same pipeline as a million pieces of rushed-to-market self-pubbed crap - that in the old days would have been confined to Lulu or shoeboxes under someone's bed.

If my "rushed-to-market self-pubbed crap" is selling, I don't see any reason for it not to be offered on every sales channel possible (even if that means it might rub elbows with trade published titles). I don't understand the us vs. them mentality. We're all writers.
 

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I don't know your work, Merrihiatt, but if it's selling, that's great. I'm talking about the self-published and vanity published novels that lurk around Amazon's 5 million mark in rankings - or simply have no ranking at all even after a few years.

They muddy the water. At least, a publisher or review site offers a way to consolidate genres, so readers can look more efficiently. I'm not saying all that material is Nebula or Booker Prize material, either, just that it's easier to assess.
 
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