The News that Amazon and Penguin have patched their differences will be greeted with a huge sigh of relief by Kindle owners. It’s now 55 days since the advent of the Agency Model and finally new Penguin titles (the ones released post April 1st, 2010) will be available in the Kindle Store.
You will probably be able to soon find the newer Penguin releases in the Kindle Store.
The WSJ writes -
Amazon.com Inc. and Pearson PLC’s Penguin Group (USA) have resolved their differences over the book-pricing model that enables publishers to set their own retail prices.
Penguin is once again making its new titles available to Amazon in the digital format. Penguin had halted the delivery of new titles in the digital format as of April 1. An estimated 150 titles were affected.
It’s a bit of a surprise that just 150 titles were affected given the amount of anger at the kindle forums regarding the delay.
On further thought, it’s easy to empathize with the frustration and anger. For example, the $14.95 price of the latest Robin Hobb pains me – Just finished the first book in the series and it’s basically a grand exercise in fleshing out the various characters and does close to zero moving of the actual script. The description of the book is literally the extent of the book’s storyline. The second book supposedly does a great job of moving things to conclusion - and now it’s above $9.99 and off-limits.
Reuters’ Take on Amazon-Penguin making up
Reuters write a bit about the Amazon-Penguin patch-up -
After Penguin, owned by Pearson, stopped providing its new titles, Amazon in return dropped the prices of some of those same physical hardback titles to US$9.99 for delivery to homes.
“We have reached an agreement with Amazon and we are pleased that a full selection of our books will be available on the Kindle,” David Shanks, chief executive of Penguin Group, said in a statement.
A Penguin spokeswoman would not comment on the specific terms of the deal. A spokesperson for Amazon was not immediately available.
It would have been amazing to see what terms each side wanted and what they finally settled on. However, that’s unlikely to happen.
Did any Kindle owners switch sides during the 55 day wait? How many?
There were interesting responses in the official Kindle forum -
- We’ll buy other books instead. Later on some of these changed to – We’ll buy the $9.99 hardcover instead – However, only a few.
- We’ll buy the book in another store or in paper format.
- We’ll leave the Kindle and go to another eReader or Reading platform. Not many – just enough to make you wonder why Amazon wasn’t settling things quickly.
So, in these 55 days of negotiations – How many Kindle owners left the Kindle platform? How many started using another platform?
Did Amazon have a way to figure out either number and how much effect did it have on the negotiations?
When will we see the next Amazon-Publisher flare-up?
There’s an uneasy peace at the moment. Publishers have their Agency Model (well, except Random House – which’ll get most of my book buying budget). Amazon have their supply of ebooks.
There is still a lot of potential for new conflicts -
- Will the entry of Google give Publishers the impetus to try something new?
- What if the iPad doesn’t sell a lot of ebooks?
- What if it does sell lots of ebooks?
- What happens when Skiff comes out? Will book publishers offer some sort of deal to the Grand Magazine Consortium?
- What if the new generation of Sony Readers is very impressive?
It never occurred to me that just as we readers and Amazon can’t wait for the Agency Model to die – Perhaps Publishers can’t wait for another opportunity to hurt ebooks and eReaders. In 2010 they’ll get quite a few.
Filed under: news Tagged: | kindle vs publishers, last penguin standing
Has it only been 55 days? Seems so much LONGER.
I refuse to be held hostage by these kind of games between publishers and Amazon any longer… so if an ebook isn’t available – or if it’s priced above $10 – I get the hardback/paperback at the library or buy it used at ebay.
It does seem longer – would’ve thought it was 3-4 months.
Seems so silly – me personally, there are so many wonderful books out there, if one isn’t available, I will simply find another book that is!
And I too got very engrossed in the Dragon Keeper book by Robin Hobb and was ill to see the price of Dragon Haven! I couldn’t wait for it to come out, but am not buying it for $15. I just put it on hold at my library (thank you dee for the idea) and will read it that way.
That’s a good idea – Have to figure out the nearest library.