Macmillan authors concerned about the fate of their Kindle editions in the hot war that broke out over the weekend between their publisher and Amazon may have no choice but to take the long view as the future of book and e-book pricing plays out before their very eyes.

Kindle customers woke up to discover that Amazon had removed the Buy buttons on its retail website for all print and e-book editions published by Macmillan, one of the publishing industry’s Big Six houses, comprising such prominent imprints as St Martin’s Press, Henry Holt, and Farrar, Straus & Giroux. The reason has to do with pricing tensions that burst to the surface after Amazon rival Apple began promoting a retail model that threatens Amazon’s ambitions to achieve hegemony over the e-book industry. (For background on that model, read Apple Promoting a New (and Radical!) Business Model for Selling E-Books? )

Publisher’s Lunch’s Michael Cader quotes a senior publishing executive as saying that “Amazon may ‘spin’ that the consumer is at the heart of the decision, but really their goal is a monopoly position in books. Publishers don’t want a monopoly – they want consumers to have choice through a number of partners and channels. They want digital pricing which allows bricks and mortar retailers to survive and thrive alongside a growing digital market…This reaction proves what Amazon’s true motives are. It is a signal to any other publishers not to change the model and weaken Amazon’s pathway to a monopoly. I hope authors, agents and publishers see what these motives are and stand by Macmillan.”

We’ll be watching the other Big Six publishers (Hachette, Simon & Schuster, Penguin, Random House, and HarperCollins) to see if they support Macmillan. If they do, it will put a lot of pressure on Amazon to reconsider its business model based on a $9.99 list price for Kindle e-books – a price that loses money for Amazon on a great many bestsellers.

A statement made by Macmillan CEO John Sargent puts the issues in perspective:

“It is [the future] that concern me now, as I am sure they concern you. In the ink-on-paper world we sell books to retailers far and wide on a business model that provides a level playing field, and allows all retailers the possibility of selling books profitably. Looking to the future and to a growing digital business, we need to establish the same sort of business model, one that encourages new devices and new stores. One that encourages healthy competition. One that is stable and rational. It also needs to insure that intellectual property can be widely available digitally at a price that is both fair to the consumer and allows those who create it and publish it to be fairly compensated.”

To read Sargent’s full statement click here.

Richard Curtis