Massive Amazon fail on every level
Most of you probably know about the corporate hissy fit that Amazon threw this weekend using Macmillian books (which includes the Tor fantasy line) as ammo. Whether or not you've been keeping track of how Amazon is -- as my agent Kristin said in her blog of yesterday -- repeatedly shooting themselves in the foot, today's post from Tor author John Scalzi will bring you up to speed and give you a good chuckle over your morning coffee at the same time.
My personal take on all of this is short and sweet: I will never buy anything from Amazon again.
This isn't the first time they've done the corporate equivalent of kicking sand into authors' eyes, and if their behavior this past weekend is any indication, it won't be the last. You don't pull the plug on every, single book a publisher offers and emerge unscathed. That hurts authors, and authors (and their fans) can speak very loudly with their credit cards. My card will be doing all of its talking somewhere else. If Amazon pulled this with one publisher, they'd just as easily do it to another.
Tuesday is traditionally book launch day. Quite a few Tor authors (including some debut authors) books weren't launched on Amazon yesterday. This affects their sales, which in turn affects their sales rankings, which determines whether or not their books make a bestseller list. In publishing, sales determine book contracts. Poor sales equals no book contract. So you can see why I'm angry. By pulling the plug on Macmillian's books, Amazon is hurting authors. Hurt one group of authors and you piss ALL of us off.
A pissed author and ex-Amazon customer,
Lisa
My personal take on all of this is short and sweet: I will never buy anything from Amazon again.
This isn't the first time they've done the corporate equivalent of kicking sand into authors' eyes, and if their behavior this past weekend is any indication, it won't be the last. You don't pull the plug on every, single book a publisher offers and emerge unscathed. That hurts authors, and authors (and their fans) can speak very loudly with their credit cards. My card will be doing all of its talking somewhere else. If Amazon pulled this with one publisher, they'd just as easily do it to another.
Tuesday is traditionally book launch day. Quite a few Tor authors (including some debut authors) books weren't launched on Amazon yesterday. This affects their sales, which in turn affects their sales rankings, which determines whether or not their books make a bestseller list. In publishing, sales determine book contracts. Poor sales equals no book contract. So you can see why I'm angry. By pulling the plug on Macmillian's books, Amazon is hurting authors. Hurt one group of authors and you piss ALL of us off.
A pissed author and ex-Amazon customer,
Lisa
posted by Lisa Shearin at
7:46 AM
11 Comments:
From a consumer side, I agree. I spoke up on my blog about it and at least one commenter seemed to think the principle of the matter was more important - that Amazon was trying to keep prices lower.
I think this situation has very different and equally important angles - depending on who you are and where your cookies are in the basket. Neither company, Macmillan or Amazon, is completely in the right.
I'm just disappointed that Amazon acted as they did. As a consumer that loved shopping there, I'm mad that they've chosen to limit what I can buy. But I also paid for a Prime membership, so I feel I've invested a little more in what was supposed to be an infinitely great selection from them.
I wish Amazon had kept this battle in the boardroom, and not chosen to swipe authors and readers right into the thick of it. I've chosen not to buy from them till this is at least fixed, and Macmillan titles are back in stock with a buy button. I feel a little like an addict whose drugs have been taken away lol, but so far I've stood my ground.
Maybe I'm taking this too personally (I tend to), but when one of my favorite authors (you're one of my favorites, but not the one I'm referring to) just keeps going ON AND ON about this situation, I can't help but feel smacked around.
Why? I'm a Kindle user with a HUGE appetite for reading. I read around 5-10 books each WEEK on my Kindle. So when people keep talking about how bad Amazon is, how we should all boycott, I say "Amazon has me."
Sure, I can probably download books elsewhere (for more money, because I've compared), but then I have to take the time to convert the books for my Kindle. So not only am I spending extra money (and in this economy, that's really crappy), but I'm also spending extra time.
Amazon has me by the addictive nature of the Kindle.
But I honestly think BOTH parties acted like idiots: Amazon for pulling the ability to buy, and Macmillan for forcing higher prices.
Good for you!
I agree, people's take on this depends on where they are in the consumer chain. My opinion is just that, my opinion. But that being said, being an author, I look at it from a livelihood POV -- the vast majority of authors don't make that much money. And for a good portion of those authors, their writing is their only source of income. So I see this as Amazon taking food off the table.
I will say, though, that I appreciate how you've addressed the situation. I do understand it's different for each person, depending on how it affects them.
For my favorite authors, I already purchase the paper books. But I also plan to buy them for my Kindle, because it's nice to have immediate access to my favorite story lines.
Also, I'm contributing twice that way. :)
Hi Jade! Since I hadn't said anything on the issue, I felt that I should post and give my opinion. I rarely use my blog as a soapbox, but in this instance, I felt like I needed to. However, my blog is about writing and it will remain about writing. Coming up this week is "Keeping a story line believable."
You're a sweetie, Jade. : )
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I have been following the mess on Kristen's blog as well. I do think that Macmillian was more concerned about long term viability for the market as a whole. They would actually get less money for e-books from Amazon with the proposed changes. The other option was to keep the price of the e-books the same, but delay the release of them. Much like you would wait longer for a paperback to come out compared to a hardback book. Even if both companies had a good point, mostly I think the problem was in the reaction from Amazon. It's like beating up someone's kid to get back at them. The authors and their fans are the ones suffering. Not something the 'good guy' does.
Exactly. Amazon's reaction was completely uncalled for. Or as I read it on another blog, Amazon was a petulant kid who spit their pacifier across the sandbox.
I've deleted my Amazon bookmark and transferred my wishlist to B&N's site. Amazon will never get another penny of my money.
I ordered eight books this weekend, three from B&N, three from Powell's, and one each from indie presses. I would have ordered all eight from Amazon if they hadn't repeatedly proven that they've got the corporate sensibilities of toddlers.
The thing that really sucks about this situation is that yes, many people will look at this and only see that Amazon was trying to keep prices low, that they may have gone about things the wrong way, but that really, they had the right idea. And that's just not the case. Amazon may be trying to keep prices low, but Amazon is doing what is best for Amazon, not what's best for customers. For anyone still following this comment thread, Tobias Buckell has a great post which explains the whole thing.
Looking at it logically, this was just a monumentally stupid move on Amazon's part. They had to know that authors would get mad about this. And authors are voracious readers. Writers read tons and tons and tons of books. Writers have a love affair with books. They have an addiction to them. So when you wipe out a large portion of your stock of quality books, you're going to lose a lot of money. People aren't just going to say, "Gosh, since Amazon doesn't have the book I'm looking for, I guess I'll have to buy something else." No. They're going to buy from B&N.com, from Borders.com, from another source.
This move was so idiotic on every level.
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