February 24, 2012

Reaction to Amazon retribution against IPG spreads quickly, but Big Six remain silent

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The news that Amazon.com has removed thousands of ebooks from the Independent Publishers Group (IPG) — the distributor for hundreds of small presses — in retribution after IPG refused to give Amazon as big a discount as they demanded exploded yesterday, and drew concern from around the world. (See yesterday’s MobyLives report.)

“I am shocked at this use of power and monopoly and I am afraid they will try to do the same here too,” says Alessandro Gallenzi, managing director of British publisher Alma Books, in a Bookseller report headlined, “UK publishers’ ‘concern’ over Amazon e-book removals.”

“It’s obviously something that’s really concerning us,” says David Carson, co-publisher of Canada’s ECW Press, in a Toronto Star report.

The story was reported as far off as Italy, Ukraine and Russia.

And it wasn’t only publishers sounding appalled. In a BoingBoing report headlined “Amazon strong-arms Independent Publishers’ Group,” Cory Doctorow quotes sci-fi author Eileen Gunn: 

Amazon, seeking to force independent book distributor IPG to accept a new, less favorable contract, has struck out at all the publishers and authors whose books are distributed by IPG. Not to mention all the readers with Kindles: You want a Kindle version of the American Cancer Society Nutrition Guide? You’re out of luck at Amazon. Maybe you should have bought a Nook.

(Doctorow takes the occasion to observe that offering ebooks DRM-free would have thwarted Amazon by providing a work-around for Kindle owners, who could have then bought IPG’s books elsewhere and still been able to read them.)

Author — and Kindle owner — Jim Hanas, whose book Why They Cried was one of the IPG titles vaporized from Amazon, writes on his blog that while “I have not been an Amazon-hater in the past” he is now urging people to get his book elsewhere, he has removed all Amazon buttons from his own website, and

“I blew my entire Amazon gift card balance on — and this is the delicious part — a Kobo Touch eReader. That’s right. Amazon doesn’t handle these directly, of course, but you can spend gift card balances with Amazon merchants, which is how I was able to buy the Kobo. It should arrive in a week and then, as a reader at least, I’ll be Amazon-free.”

(See Ellie Robins‘ MobyLives report for more.)

Alma’s Gallenzi is also fighting back, and predicts resistance might get some results. In a Guardian report by Alison Flood, he noted,

“The Amazon myth is one of almost endless availability. They have built their success on an illusion that you can get any book there, and cheaper than from their competitors. Throwing a spanner in the works with a big dispute like this one, when 4,000 books are not available to buy, will create a huge disruption. The consequences, even though the publishers are small, can hurt it very badly. I think that even a smallish distribution group can, and I hope will, stand up to them and fight. What is at stake is the ability of independent publishers to hold their own ground, and to still have a bit of control over pricing and their own margins.”

As to how it went down in New York, where as I said in yesterday’s report, I believe this was meant to be heard by the Big Six, most of whom are at an impasse with Amazon themselves over their own annual contracts, even though it’s nearly March ….

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg observes in a Wall Street Journal report that …

Amazon’s latest actions are significant because they send a message to distributors and publishers that it is willing to delist digital books at a time when e-books are the fastest growing segment of the publishing business. “It wouldn’t seem that the aggregate revenue of the publishers involved could add up to a significant amount of volume,” said Amy Rhodes, a partner at Market Partners International Inc., a consultancy. “It would seem to be more about message sending than actual economics.”

While that observation, and the fact that Amazon’s stock was down yesterday, may indicate Wall Street is watching this one closely (and as David Streitfeld noted in a New York Times report Wednesday, “Amazon is under pressure from Wall Street to improve its anemic margins”) there was no sign yesterday that the message had been heard by the people it was intended for — that is, no one from the Big Six commented.

Nonetheless I’m sure they have heard it; they may not be responding publicly for the same reason that IPG president Mark Suchomel stopped making detailed public statements yesterday. As he explained in a report from IPG’s hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, “Amazon has issues with us talking too much.”

 

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

  • Sam jordison

    Good luck IPG. Let’s hope more people go amazon-free.

  • Paul Kozlowski

    Agreed, Dennis, the silence from the Big Sicks is deafening. But how could it be otherwise…? Their MO is to negotiate hard, just not publicly. I’m certainly rooting for David over Goliath, but this may only be a skirmish in what will likely be a protracted campaign.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/5AX37XLWBDFKL3FREU6RIYZJ5A Laura Kuechenmeister

    You’d think AT LEAST MPS would have something to say after a similar issue a year or two ago…

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Literary-Man/100002063705771 Literary Man

    All publishers, indie or otherwise, need to start bundling an electronic version of the book INSIDE the hardcover, as a link or a QR code, to ensure that readers don’t need to go through Amazon at all.

  • KD Ryder

    I’m starting to get that sick feeling I got when I learned someone I counted as a good friend had been molesting his stepdaughter.  You think you know someone, and then you find out what they really are.

    I have been a diehard Amazon fan and customer since they were a fledgling dot com in the midst of a million others.  They were the FIRST online merchant I had an account with.  I only recently finally changed my password on Amazon from a simplistic, six-letter cat’s name to a more secure one.  And it was the ONLY password I had anywhere that had not had numbers in it, that’s how long I’ve been on amazon.

    They won me over with stellar customer service, good pricing, excellent shipping terms.  I have the Amazon credit card, which has earned me hundreds in amazon gift cards.

    I bought a kindle last year and started changing how I bought books.  And now, as an author, I was pleased to put my books out in e form for kindle (and through lulu for the other formats).   I have two books (under two pen names) on Kindle Select that are on freebie promotions right now.  I’m actually making royalties.  I’m excited about writing again.

    But I’m becoming increasingly ill now that I’m slowly having to accept that this wonderful candy store I’ve been shopping in for the last 12 years has this dirty little secret — they’re greedy, and willing to stomp on the rights of others to get a bigger and bigger piece of the pie and, most importantly and most disturbing, TOTAL CONTROL over the sale of books in this country.

    What they’re doing might be good for readers, and a few thousand people have benefitted by getting MY book for free already — good for them, not so good for me.  But they need to be fair to the authors and publishers that have been producing the books that Amazon got their start by selling all those years ago.

    They are forgetting their roots.  They’re forgetting what made them what they are.  And they are starting to piss off, not just their suppliers, but their customer base as well, because guess what?  All those people on the supply side of the equation are ALSO customers.

    I left eBay, both as a buyer and a seller, because of similar money-grabbing abuses perpetrated against sellers presumbably on behalf of buyers.  I used to buy nearly everything on eBay.  But I’ve been boycotting them for several years.  I used to average about 4 purchases a month on eBay, maybe more, including computers and other high-ticket items.  I think I’ve made maybe 10 purchases there in the last four years.  Instead, amazone has been getting 90% of my online business.

    And I’m starting to feel sick about it.  I hope they wise up before they shoot themselves in the foot.  I think I may start buying direct from their own sellers, like I did with eBay.

    • Nancyadams75229

      KD Ryder, you and I are identical. I used to sell a lot of stuff on Ebay. Then, when they decided that buyers were far more important than sellers, not allowing us to report on bad buyers, and raising our fees over and over, I left.  Now, here we have Amazon being as greedy and nasty as it gets.  I have a popular book over there that makes them plenty of money. And now, it’s suddenly a wise decision to NOT have my book in stock for fast shipping simply because I use LS and not CS?? Trust me, they WILL shoot themselves in the foot eventually. 

  • http://twitter.com/jim_pettit Jim Pettit

    This seems to be yet another of those “some people just don’t get it” stories. It hit the music industry first, then producers of movies and TV shows, then newspapers, and now it’s come full force to book publishing. Instead of realizing that the gig is up and a new way of doing commerce has taken over, the dinosaurs–and for all their newness, Amazon is indeed a dinosaur–insist on prolonging the old paradigm through bullying. Well, that response hasn’t worked for music, or movies, or TV, or newspaper, and I will put good money on it not working for book publishers. The quicker Amazon looks in depth and realizes its future profits aren’t going to be derived through keeping the old ways intact via thuggery, the better off they’ll be. And the better off we will be, too.

  • http://twitter.com/paxdickinson Pax Dickinson

    I don’t think you understand the word “retribution” and how a free market works.

    When a wholesaler doesn’t want to sell their product at a price the retailer wants to pay, the retailer doesn’t sell it. A wholesaler doesn’t have the “right” to access every retailer just because he’d prefer it that way.

  • Reynolfc

    You know what, I hate bullies, and big business’s are the worst bullies of all. However, bullies usually get their comeuppance in time. Let’s hope Amazon get the slap in the face they deserve.

  • http://www.brightring.com/ MaryAnn F. Kohl

    Suchomel and  IPG are built on integrity and have a long history of being ethical and representing their publishers well. This is proof of the same. As one of their long time publishers, I support them completely. 

  • Anonymous

    In defense of the Big 6 here, either they’d have to risk a solitary statement and get bitch slapped by Amazon themselves, or they’d coordinate and be in violation of monopoly laws themselves.

    • http://mhpbooks.com Melville House Publishing

      You mis-read me if you think I’m opposed to the Big Six in this fight. Quite the contrary. But I think this may be their last chance to stand up to Amazon: As for your description of their position, I disagree:

      1. It is not at all illegal for the Big Six to collude on setting a floor price if it encourages competition and/or is good for the consumer, according to a 2007 Supreme Court decision I’ve discussed many times on MobyLives (such as here http://bit.ly/xxV9Ci). That would stop Amazon cold. This would be a good, long-term solution.

      2. If one stood up, the others would quickly follow. They’re all at a stalemate now. If they all act now, Amazon would have to give in, or they’d have nothing to sell. In another year, they might be content with self-published authors and books from their own publishing houses. It’s now or never for the big houses. This would be a good but probably not-so-long term a solution, because eventually Amazon will boost their publishing efforts and exploit self-publised authors to the point that they may indeed say, “Fuck the big houses.”

      3. The best of all possible solutions would be for the publishers to go to the Federal Trade Commission and demand an anti-trust investigation based on Amazon’s current demands.

      – Dennis Johnson

      • dporpentine

         What about Melville House leading a group of independent publishers to ask the FTC for an investigation? Are there economic barriers to making that kind of request? (Meaning, de facto barriers. I assume any crank can write a letter.) It might be very popular among independent publishers. I know one that would join . . .

  • http://twitter.com/crobinson227 Christine Robinson

    Nigh, nigh, Amazon. 

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