Slashdot Mirror
Japanese Publishers Lash Out At Amazon's Policies
Nate the greatest writes: Amazon is in a bitter contract fight with Hachette in the U.S. and Bonnier in Germany, and now it seems the retail giant is also in conflict with publishers in Japan. Amazon has launched a new rating system in Japan which gives preference to publishers with larger ebook catalogs (and publishers that pay higher fees), leading to complaints that Amazon is using its market power to blackmail publishers. Where have we heard that complaint before?
The retailer is also being boycotted by a handful of Japanese publishers who disagree with Amazon offering a rewards program to students. The retailer gives students 10% of a book's price as points, which can be used to buy more books. This skirts Japanese fixed-price book laws, so several smaller publishers pulled their books from Amazon in protest. Businesses are out to make money and not friends, but Amazon sure is a lightning rod for conflicts, isn't it?
The retailer is also being boycotted by a handful of Japanese publishers who disagree with Amazon offering a rewards program to students. The retailer gives students 10% of a book's price as points, which can be used to buy more books. This skirts Japanese fixed-price book laws, so several smaller publishers pulled their books from Amazon in protest. Businesses are out to make money and not friends, but Amazon sure is a lightning rod for conflicts, isn't it?
Once you sell something to me, it's none of your business if I choose to re-sell it. In particular, the price I charge is none of you business.
Halve your margin and triple your sales.
>NO BREAKS TO ANYBODY, ESPECIALLY STUDENTS
It's like they're begging for piracy to happen.
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BMO
Unsure about the concept of monopolies and the pressures they can bring to bear suppressing competition are we?
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
Time to sue Apple again and make sure there is zero viable competition remaining for eBooks. Make that rubble bounce.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Boycot Amazon. I do, and a lot of people here in central Europe do ( although almost all of the boycotters do live in large cities, with easy access to book stores ). It is actually a physical delight to go, in persona, to a a book store, browse, take your time, and buy -- or place an order for something they don't have in stock. In the latter case, getting the phone call that "your book has arrived, Mr. Faustus" is delightful, too,
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
What praytell is preventing them from starting their own Amazons?
Sure, because it's *so* easy to create a successful online bookseller. Gee, why didn't anyone think of that before? Those Japanese people must be idiots. Baka yaroo.
Apple was only ever competing in the eBook industry on their own devices - and they were hurting the rest of us reading eBooks on other platforms.
When I can read my Apple eBooks on anything other than an IOS device, then they are in competition, until then they are just a negative on the industry as they are treating IOS as the entire market when dealing with publishers, which affects me over here on a platform Apple will never touch.
It is if they're willing to play it smart enough.
I mean you didn't think that computer you're typing on was so cheap because the manufacturers decided to give you a winning personality discount, did you?
Also I'd advise anyone whining about monopolies to take a good long look at the standard contracts existing publishers make authors sign, as we're on the subject.
Oh wow, on an *Apple* computer.
That makes all the difference! There is competition in the market!
Of course it fucking matters if the competition is only within one very small segment of the market, it means a much higher cost of entry for the consumer - to read my Amazon Kindle book all I had to do was download the free Kindle reading app on any one of my Android phone, Android tablet, Apple phone, Apple tablet, Windows Phone, Windows 8 device, Apple computer, Windows 7 computer, Blackberry or a web browser for the web reader. Or buy a Kindle.
To take advantage of your "competition" I would have to buy an Apple device...
If you can't see why that is important, then you are a retard.
Amazon is providing the better service, and they are doing it without meaningful competition. Apple are locking you into their hardware ecosystem and were raising the price I have to pay on another platform to do it.
Again, if you can't see why that is important, then you are a retard.
Apple brings no competition to the market at all, they compete in one relatively small segment and have no interest in providing any service to those not using Apple devices. Fuck them.
Established authors depend on the publishers to limit the availability of books. In the Amazon world with no incentive to limit the number of published books, and to limit titles to those who will sell many copies, many authors are going to be working at a loss. That may explain why evidence that authors are bieng paid less matters less that the thought that Amazon may be in control.
So there are no good guys and no bad guys here. Just people trying to make money. When books are gone we the next generation is going to miss then no more than we miss leather bond, gold leafed books with each section having a faux-hand-drawn calligraphy character.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Including promotion?
Yes. An individual author can promote their book on social media. It is unlikely to become an instant bestseller, but if it is good, word will spread. This is especially true if the author is writing for a niche market that can be targeted in specific online forums.
Japan is a heavily business-oriented society, but not in the free market way that we tend to assume. Most consumer markets are locked up by an oligopoly of the largest players. Competition is considered less important than tradition, and the everyday consumer considers it his patriotic duty to pay more for everything he buys so that the Japanese economy can be promoted. The only way for Americans to imagine what this system is like is to think of the US prescription drug model, extended to every market you shop in. Imagine paying pharmacy prices for computers and cabbages.
When you go there to live, you will be besieged by friends and relatives asking you to buy cameras and electronics "at Tokyo prices" for them. You need to tell them at the outset that a Nikon or a Sony product is a lot cheaper ordered through Amazon right at home than it would be in Japan. THIS is what those Japanese publishers fear from Amazon operating on their own soil.
The summary says:
"Amazon has launched a new rating system in Japan which gives preference to publishers with larger ebook catalogs (and publishers that pay higher fees)."
This is the main point of the post and yet there are not even a mention of how this rating system manipulation works in the articles linked? Online search just shows sites copying the same line from each other and again w/o explanation. Does anyone know?
a physical delight to go, in persona, to a book store, browse
Unless you encounter bookshelves where the fantasy and vampire stories are mixed with the science fiction. I get the urge to go mix the romance shelves with the mysteries in retaliation
There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.