Are we capitulated yet? We know, we know, Jeff Bezos said “eventually”, but we keep clicking on Publishers Lunch waiting for a bulletin that doesn’t come. The Amazonian natives are getting restless, Kindle owners are exploring the trade-in market for the Apple iPad, Macmillan authors have climbed out on window ledges, and our industry is starting to get a collective public relations black eye. See Too good to be true? Amazon still hasn’t capitulated and that was two days ago.

Author Scott Westerfield issued a report that fairly assesses all the issues but ultimately supports Macmillan.

This is not a case of two corporations pissing down on us mere mortals with equal disdain; it’s a case of complex negotiations in an ancient industry with many arcane traditions that’s in a state of technological flux. And suddenly, out of the blue, one of the sides in this negotiation spat their pacifier across the room in a very public and embarrassing display of petulance. And that corporation was Amazon.

Yes, Amazon gets to set whatever prices it wants (free market!), but guess what, Macmillan also gets to release its electronic editions later if it feels simultaneous release is not in its best interests and those of its allies (free market again, sir!). Amazon gets to de-list an entire publisher if it wants to, even on a whim. But that’s a massive free market fail, because we start to hate them and they have to back down two days later. And that’s really the end of it: their strategy failed, because the rest of us can call shenanigans and take our business elsewhere. They aren’t a monopoly yet.

Read Westerfeld’s Amazon v Macmillan: free market fail.

RC