The books industry still underestimates the disruptive power of Jeff Bezos's awesome ambitionSo Amazon are the bad guys, again. At least according to Harper's Magazine they are. For the former Amazon employee James Marcus, Brad Stone "drops the ball" in his biography of Jeff Bezos, The Everything Store, when he accepts "what is literally the company line – that these extorted dollars 'create the foundation on which everyday low prices become possible'." Marcus tells how some publishers are being "pressured" to pay "for the privilege of presenting their lists to [Amazon] marketing team and buyers" – a story denied in a footnote by an unnamed "Amazon spokesperson" – and goes on to assemble an impressive rap sheet of sharp practice:Of course it's legal. So is Amazon's control of an estimated 65 percent of the ebook market, a near monopoly that's apparently of no concern to the supine Department of Justice. So is its bare-bones price of $9.99 for popular ebooks, a loss-leading tactic that might be classified as predatory pricing if there weren't so many legal hurdles to making such a charge stick. So is the funneling of its British revenues through a subsidiary in Luxembourg ...... and on it goes. But Amazon's aggressive style of doing business is nothing new. What astonishes me is the continuing ability of publishers to underestimate how radically Amazon has changed the industry.Mike Shatzkin is one of those who have understood Amazon's disruptive power all along. But such... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2013-12-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Amazon.co.uk has reiterated its opposition to agency pricing as it revealed its top-selling ebook authors are not governed by the model. Last week Amazon.com announced ebooks had begun to outsell paperbacks in the US for the first time, with 115 ebooks bought for every... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Over the last few months the tech industry has been inching toward ebook nirvana. For one thing, gadget makers keep improving e-readers while slashing prices. (I'm going to renew my bet that Amazon will begin selling the Kindle for less than $100 by the end of the year.) The bigger story,... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Amazon.co.uk has selected books published by Myriad Editions, Fig Tree, Atlantic Books and Simon & Schuster as its four Rising Stars for this quarter. Snowdrops by A D Miller (Atlantic Books) is currently the featured book, with a Q&A with Miller on the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-02-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The ebook sales milestone "has come even sooner than we expected," CEO Bezos says. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-01-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Kindle ebooks have overtaken paperback sales at Amazon.com, as the internet retailer revealed sales topped $10bn for the first time in its latest trading quarter. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Waterstone's is cutting orders it makes on new titles from March to reduce its number of returns. The book retailer contacted suppliers this week asking them to reduce initial orders by about 20%. Publishers were asked to cancel existing pre-orders so that new orders... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Online retailer reports sales of its digital ebooks has outstripped those of traditional paperbacks. Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2011-01-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By Tim Conneally, Betanews Wednesday, Web retailer Amazon launched its Kindle Singles line of literature designed specifically for consumption on e-readers. The works, priced between $1.00 and $3.00, include original works of prose, essays and theses, and the the first TEDBooks.Last October,... Continue reading at Betanews
[ Betanews | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple caused a stir last week when it announced that it sold 7.3 million iPads in the quarter ended December 25, bringing the number of devices it has sold since it released the iPad last April to nearly 15 million. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-01-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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That might be the best news yet, as long as publishers remember why they went into bankruptcy in the first place. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ten years ago, as the prospect of monetizing Web sites started becoming a reality for publishers, different departments butted heads over prime real estate: editorial wanted it for content; sales wanted it for advertising; marketing wanted it for promotion. Today, as the emphasis shifts away... Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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