Yes, I'm a Philogynist
Archive for February, 2010
A Letter To Macmillan Part Deux
Feb 5th
Amazon has caved to Macmillan’s demands to RAISE E-book prices to consumers. So, what’s the bottom line? Macmillan makes oodles of money from books, whether they are E-book or paper. Amazon gets 30% of each book sold. You and I get to pay whatever Macmillan wants for each E-book. Why all the screaming?
Before this row, Amazon PAID MACMILLAN FULL WHOLESALE PRICE PER BOOK. Amazon sold it to you and me AT A LOSS TO AMAZON, NOT Macmillan. Macmillan objected because ‘..it cheapened it’s books..’ WTF? Macmillan makes every penny it wanted to, Amazon lost money per book but made up for it other purchases book buyers made while at Amazon and you and I got E-books for less than we would have paid for the paper version. A Win-Win in my ‘book’, yes? Evidently not. Macmillan bent Amazon over to ram home the fact that the 800-lb. gorilla of publishing wanted TOTAL CONTROL. And Macmillan isn’t the only publisher squirming … There will be more, too. As far as I can see, three publishers are bitching: Hachette, Macmillan and HarperCollins. And now Rupert Murdock’s getting into the act.
So, you and I lose and a big, fat corporation wins. Again. Still.
My shout out to those publishers fighting Amazon? Watch what happens next. You modern-day buggy whip manufacturers days are numbered.
A Letter To Macmillan
Feb 5th
[In response to this news article]
“I am a huge customer of Amazon. As such, I buy four to five books a month from them. I have found no other retailer with the breadth and depth of their offerings, certainly not a ‘brick and mortar’ bookseller.
I find your policy of not selling your books at Amazon to be sadly short-sighted and a bit disingenuous.
[EDIT - I was grossly mistaken on this part. AMAZON pulled Macmillan's books off of AMAZON'S shelves, not vice-versa. My apologies to all on that one]
I’m no genius, but I suspect your profit margin was the limiting factor, not the pablum spouted by your CEO. Customer service certainly wasn’t a factor as you’ve removed the largest bookseller in the world from access to your books. Ask any author out there and they’ll tell you that publishers are basically hoarding the profits from the authors due to their ‘long tail’ of people, all getting their bite from the revenue the books bring in. By the time the author gets paid, there’s not much left.
So, bottom line, I aint buying it. I’m sure I’ll be dismissed as a crank by you, but the reality of the situation is this – I’m not buying Macmillan books because Amazon doesn’t sell them.
Corporations need to start focusing on people like me, the little guy, in your spats with each other. Get over yourselves and give us access to your books at a price people like me can afford.
Mike Fisher”
If every Amazon customer did this, ESPECIALLY Kindle users, I betcha we’d get some fast responses and actions from the publishers.
Is Your Browser Too Old For The MODERN Internet?
Feb 5th
Posted by MDF in Commentary
No comments
Some people are STILL using Internet Explorer 6. It is possibly the worst example of software out there. It has more holes than a beer can near a Redneck campground. It allows more viruses to infect people’s computers than actually installing them yourself. And it’s programmed horribly. If you still use IE6, you should be caned.
Here’s an example of how terrible it is. If you use IE6, click the link. If you don’t, thank you for being modern enough to update every now and then.
BROWSER TEST FILE
Enjoy!
MDF