This is my response (the initial email is lower down):
*********************************************************************************
Dear Amazon,
I'd like to point out to you that when you first started
to introduce your magazines and newspapers your offer to publishers was a 70 /
30 split with you taking 70% of the takings. It was only when Apple entered the
magazine and newspaper field that you had a grand announcement about the
reversion of the 70 / 30 split. You have a long ways to go in building
credibility (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/11/09/kindle.newspapers/index.html?hpt=Sbin).
And unless your other terms for magazine publishers has
changed recently, they were also kind of crazy (I've attached what was sent to
me). You stated in your terms that a magazine could be pulled at any time if
the content wasn't agreeable. You offered no recourse, no discussion and no
process for which publishers could or could not abide by. In an email to your
Amazon beta group I had concerns about sections 3.2, 5.1.4, 5.2 and 5.3. I
would be happy to forward on the email that I sent to Sean Paul. I found this
to be particularly offensive considering at the time it was discovered that one
of the self published books that could be found on Amazon was written by a
child molester for other child molesters on how to rape children (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/amazon-removes-pedophilia-book-store/story?id=12119035)
.
Once again credibility is an issue with you.
I no longer believe that this dispute is about the cost
of e-books and your interest in lowering the price is not altogether
altruistic. I've no doubt that your math is correct and Hachette would sell more
books if they lowered the price, having said that, it's neither your place nor
mine to make that dictation to another business. If Hachette has chosen to sell
their books at $14.99 or $19.99 that's their call, not yours. Nor is it up to
you to determine what percentage goes to the author and what percentage stays
with the publisher. That's a relationship between the publisher and the author
and you have no business intervening. Ultimately, if your honest, your revenues
would go up significantly if Hachette lowered their price of e-books.
If you want to get into the publishing world, then become
a publisher otherwise don't create unnecessary disputes.
Furthermore to offer up suggestions for the recipients of
this email to use in sending a note on to Hachette is laughable. One of your
suggestions is for us to suggest to Hachette not to use authors as leverage.
The only one that put those authors in the middle of this dispute is you. You
made the choice to not sell those authors works, no one else made that choice.
No one made you do anything, no one forced your into anything. You Amazon, made
that choice.
I'm a very small magazine publisher that decided some
time ago not to have my products on your shelf. Already this dispute has
challenged other publishers to rethink how they do business with their readers.
HarperCollins is now selling print on demand books and e-books off their
website (http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2014/harpercollins-pivots-to-sell-print-and-ebooks-directly-to-readers-through-main-website/)
and it's only a matter of time before other publishers do as well. Hachette can
just as easily go that route.
Amazon, your arrogance will eventually turn your
customers off and they will go looking elsewhere. If other publishing houses
decide to sell POD your selection will deteriorate and I've no doubt that
Google is watching this dispute closely waiting for an opportunity.
Honestly Amazon, you need to take a look at the message
you're sending out there. You've created this dispute with Hachette, Warner
Brothers is also on your hit list - who's next? You're going to lose face with
the public and they'll start to go elsewhere. You have competition from other
sites now selling similar products to you (non literary), you need to be
careful the image that your portray so that your customers can still find value
in you.
Honestly, I hope this dispute ends because I truly
believe both you and Hachette have some maturing to do. Neither of you have
acted professionally or with any kind of class. If I could put both your CEO's
in a room I would probably bang their heads together.
Amazon and Hachette, you can end this dispute. I would
strongly recommend that you both grow up and get back to the business of
running your businesses.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Take care and happy reading.
Darlene Poier
PublisherFicta Fabula
Inspiring Creativity and Imagination
www.fictafabula.com
www.pagesofstories.com
Sent: August-08-14 11:41 PM
To: Darlene Poier
Subject: Important Kindle request
Dear KDP Author,
Just ahead of World War II, there was a radical invention
that shook the foundations of book publishing. It was the paperback book. This
was a time when movie tickets cost 10 or 20 cents, and books cost $2.50. The
new paperback cost 25 cents – it was ten times cheaper. Readers loved the
paperback and millions of copies were sold in just the first year.
With it being so inexpensive and with so many more people
able to afford to buy and read books, you would think the literary
establishment of the day would have celebrated the invention of the paperback,
yes? Nope. Instead, they dug in and circled the wagons. They believed low cost
paperbacks would destroy literary culture and harm the industry (not to mention
their own bank accounts). Many bookstores refused to stock them, and the early
paperback publishers had to use unconventional methods of distribution – places
like newsstands and drugstores. The famous author George Orwell came out
publicly and said about the new paperback format, if “publishers had any sense,
they would combine against them and suppress them.” Yes, George Orwell was
suggesting collusion.
Well… history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.
Fast forward to today, and it’s the e-book’s turn to be
opposed by the literary establishment. Amazon and Hachette – a big US publisher
and part of a $10 billion media conglomerate – are in the middle of a business
dispute about e-books. We want lower e-book prices. Hachette does not. Many
e-books are being released at $14.99 and even $19.99. That is unjustifiably
high for an e-book. With an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no
need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing
costs, no transportation costs, and there is no secondary market – e-books cannot
be resold as used books. E-books can and should be less expensive.
Perhaps channeling Orwell’s decades old suggestion,
Hachette has already been caught illegally colluding with its competitors to
raise e-book prices. So far those parties have paid $166 million in penalties
and restitution. Colluding with its competitors to raise prices wasn’t only
illegal, it was also highly disrespectful to Hachette’s readers.
The fact is many established incumbents in the industry
have taken the position that lower e-book prices will “devalue books” and hurt
“Arts and Letters.” They’re wrong. Just as paperbacks did not destroy book
culture despite being ten times cheaper, neither will e-books. On the contrary,
paperbacks ended up rejuvenating the book industry and making it stronger. The
same will happen with e-books.
Many inside the echo-chamber of the industry often draw
the box too small. They think books only compete against books. But in reality,
books compete against mobile games, television, movies, Facebook, blogs, free
news sites and more. If we want a healthy reading culture, we have to work hard
to be sure books actually are competitive against these other media types, and
a big part of that is working hard to make books less expensive.
Moreover, e-books are highly price elastic. This means
that when the price goes down, customers buy much more. We've quantified the
price elasticity of e-books from repeated measurements across many titles. For
every copy an e-book would sell at $14.99, it would sell 1.74 copies if priced
at $9.99. So, for example, if customers would buy 100,000 copies of a
particular e-book at $14.99, then customers would buy 174,000 copies of that
same e-book at $9.99. Total revenue at $14.99 would be $1,499,000. Total
revenue at $9.99 is $1,738,000. The important thing to note here is that the
lower price is good for all parties involved: the customer is paying 33% less
and the author is getting a royalty check 16% larger and being read by an
audience that’s 74% larger. The pie is simply bigger.
But when a thing has been done a certain way for a long
time, resisting change can be a reflexive instinct, and the powerful interests
of the status quo are hard to move. It was never in George Orwell’s interest to
suppress paperback books – he was wrong about that.
And despite what some would have you believe, authors are
not united on this issue. When the Authors Guild recently wrote on this, they
titled their post: “Amazon-Hachette Debate Yields Diverse Opinions Among
Authors” (the comments to this post are worth a read). A petition started by another group of
authors and aimed at Hachette, titled “Stop Fighting Low Prices and Fair
Wages,” garnered over 7,600 signatures.
And there are myriad articles and posts, by authors and readers alike,
supporting us in our effort to keep prices low and build a healthy reading
culture. Author David Gaughran’s recent interview is another piece worth
reading.
We recognize that writers reasonably want to be left out
of a dispute between large companies. Some have suggested that we “just talk.”
We tried that. Hachette spent three months stonewalling and only grudgingly
began to even acknowledge our concerns when we took action to reduce sales of
their titles in our store. Since then Amazon has made three separate offers to
Hachette to take authors out of the middle. We first suggested that we (Amazon
and Hachette) jointly make author royalties whole during the term of the
dispute. Then we suggested that authors receive 100% of all sales of their
titles until this dispute is resolved. Then we suggested that we would return
to normal business operations if Amazon and Hachette’s normal share of revenue
went to a literacy charity. But Hachette, and their parent company Lagardere,
have quickly and repeatedly dismissed these offers even though e-books
represent 1% of their revenues and they could easily agree to do so. They
believe they get leverage from keeping their authors in the middle.
We will never give up our fight for reasonable e-book
prices. We know making books more affordable is good for book culture. We’d
like your help. Please email Hachette and copy us.
Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch: Michael.Pietsch@hbgusa.com
Copy us at: readers-united@amazon.comPlease consider including these points:
- We have noted your illegal collusion. Please stop
working so hard to overcharge for ebooks. They can and should be less
expensive.
- Lowering e-book prices will help – not hurt – the
reading culture, just like paperbacks did.
- Stop using your authors as leverage and accept one of
Amazon’s offers to take them out of the middle.
- Especially if you’re an author yourself: Remind them
that authors are not united on this issue.
Thanks for your support.
The Amazon Books Team
P.S. You can also find this letter at www.readersunited.com
