Amazon reshelves Macmillan titles but not e-books

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Merchandise sits at the Amazon Phoenix Fulfillment Center in Goodyear, Arizona, in this file image from November 16, 2009. REUTERS/Rick Scuteri

Merchandise sits at the Amazon Phoenix Fulfillment Center in Goodyear, Arizona, in this file image from November 16, 2009.

Credit: Reuters/Rick Scuteri

CHICAGO | Sun Feb 7, 2010 12:24am EST

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Online retailer Amazon.com Inc resumed selling hardcover and paperback books from Macmillan Publishers late on Friday in a sign the two companies are getting closer to resolving a pricing dispute over Macmillan's electronic books, which remain unavailable on Amazon.

Popular titles such as "Sarah's Key" by Tatiana de Rosnay were once again available in hardcover for $17.13. But Amazon's website displayed a message for those wanting to read the book on a Kindle: "Tell the publisher! I'd like to read this book on the Kindle."

Neither Amazon nor the privately held Macmillan were immediately available to comment.

Amazon temporarily removed all titles published by Macmillan, whose imprints include Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Henry Holt and Co, from its website last weekend.

The online retailer has come under fire from a number publishers for the low prices it charges for e-books to spur demand for the Kindle, hoping to fend off new rivals such as Apple Inc that are set to join the e-books fray with the iPad.

Amazon currently charges $9.99 for the e-book version of most new releases and bestsellers. Macmillan wanted to charge $12.99 to $14.99 for the e-book version of most of its books.

(Reporting by Lisa Shumaker; Editing by Eric Walsh)
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Comments (7)
wong1123 wrote:
Before long, we will have an i_Pouch with which we will phone

Feb 07, 2010 2:02am EST  --  Report as abuse
bradpeterson wrote:
Macmillan’s expensive titles will have to necessarily compete with the wide world of great literary works that are also lower in price. I appreciate that my Kindle is on my side literally as a reader, and figuratively as a consumer.

Feb 07, 2010 7:35am EST  --  Report as abuse
curmudgeon555 wrote:
For those not old enough to remember, this is EXACTLY what happened when discounters first appeared on the retail scene. Fair Trade laws prohibited retailers from selling below manufacturers full retail prices. Any company that tried found themselves banned, cut off from their suppliers. Public protest and discounters who took the manufacturers to court put an end to this illegal price fixing. Amazon and the public need to do the same thing here.

Feb 07, 2010 8:05am EST  --  Report as abuse
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