Macmillan books pulled from Amazon website

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NEW YORK | Sun Jan 31, 2010 1:22pm EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has removed all e-books published by Macmillan from its website after a dispute over pricing, according to media reports.

Amazon's website, as well as the site for its Kindle e-reader, on Sunday showed titles published by Macmillan, including "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay, available only through third parties.

Publishers are widely seen to be demanding more control over prices of their e-books, as more companies like Barnes & Noble Inc and Apple Inc join the e-reader market. Apple unveiled its iPad tablet computer on Wednesday.

The New York Times and other media reported that Macmillan asked Amazon to raise the price of e-books to around $15 from $9.99.

Company officials were not immediately available for a comment.

According to statistics released by the International Digital Publishing Forum, wholesale revenue from e-book sales in the United States almost tripled in the third quarter of 2009 to $46.5 million from $13.9 million in the same period in 2008.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando, editing by Maureen Bavdek)
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Comments (6)
eqnx97 wrote:
Macmillian must be either nuts or hungry for money. They will not be able to compete with the “rest” of the publishers selling their titles at $9.99 which is a much more attractive and fair price than $15!

Jan 31, 2010 2:59pm EST  --  Report as abuse
justwondering wrote:
I don’t want to take bread out of any artist’s mouth so if author’s are being cheated they need to be paid. But the question is who is doing the cheating and what effect this -correction- will have. The industry is undoubtedly growing so fast partially because the price is so relatively low. The whole point of removing brick and mortar costs should be the product is cheaper not the price reaches it’s former height in time lapse. One sees the same ridiculous phenomenon in older streamed movies vs. previously viewed DVDs. Who are these people so blindly determined to kill the golden geese for a single meal?

Where is the cost that justifies selling a download for the same price you would charge for a book that had to be printed, bound, warehoused and sold? And how is any house even halfway well run losing money on such a scheme?

Jan 31, 2010 3:23pm EST  --  Report as abuse
bradpeterson wrote:
MacMillan could create its own e-book device or open its own bookstores. Amazon.com is plainly advocating for the benefit of the consumer and the public, which is remarkable and, for me, greatly appreciated.

Jan 31, 2010 3:26pm EST  --  Report as abuse
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