Macmillan Books Pulled from Amazon

All “Buy Buttons” Pulled from Macmillan Books on Amazon.com’s website

In breaking news yesterday, Amazon.com pulled ALL of Macmillan Books Buy Buttons from Amazon’s site. For children’s books, this includes all imprints of Macmillan Children’s Books: FSG, Roaring Brook, Feiwel & Friends, and Henry Holt and their various imprints.

Argument over Ebook Sales

The action results from a disagreement about ebook sales. Macmillan wants control of it’s ebook sales to remain with the company, but Amazon prefers to control the market.

The incident was sparked by Apple’s introduction this week of the iPad ebook reader. Although not on sale yet, it is anticipated to change the current business models for selling ebooks, in favor of the author and publisher.

Right now, Amazon sells more ebooks than other providers of ebooks. They do it by controlling the market, giving ebook providers 30% of sales. In order to sell on Amazon, you must use their proprietary Kindle format. And finally, Amazon sets the price of the books, with a cap at $9.99.

Instead, Apple proposed to switch business models. Instead of giving 30% of the profits to a publisher, they will only ask for 30% and will act as a selling agent for publishers. Publishers are free to set their own prices and change them as needed to meet market conditions.

READ MORE:

• Amazon Pulls Macmillan Books: NY Times
• Macmillan’s Letter to Authors
• Amazon removes Macmillan Books in pricing dispute Chicago Sun-Times.
• The discussion of missing Macmillan Kindle titles on Amazon.com’s forum..
• Discussion of missing Macmillan titles on Amazon.com’s forum.

This isn’t the first time Amazon has pulled buy buttons from publishers, though the last time they did it, it was from small, independent publishers. At that time, Amazon allegedly was trying to force small publishers to move all POD books to Amazon’s BookSurge/CreateSpace service. Amazon recently lost an anti-trust suit over this.

MacBuy Protest

In a MacBuy Protest, I urge you to do two things

1. Buy your books at other online retailers. In my sidebar, you’ll see links to options:
   • a Valentine’s promotion of 45% off certain books at B&N Online.
   • links to the Chinaberry Children’s Catalog online
   • Link to the IndieBound website, that will provide links to independent bookstores.

   Note: these are affiliate links, which means I’ll earn a commission. However, linking to online stores is a minor income for my site, with less than $100 coming from these links in 2009.

2. If you are a Macmillan Author, please leave a comment asking Amazon to restore the buy buttons on your specific books. Please list the books and imprints.

Award Winning Children’s Books you Can NOT buy Today on Amazon.com

• Newbery Honor book and Siebert Medal Honor, “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice” by Phillip Hoose and published by Melanie Kroupa Books/Farrar Straus Giroux, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
• Newbery Honor book, “The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate” by Jacqueline Kelly and published by Henry Holt and Company
• Winner of YALSA Excellence in Non-Fiction Award and Printz Honor book, “Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith” by Deborah Heiligman, published by Henry Holt Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
• Schneider Family Book Award winner for young children 0-10 category, “Django” written and illustrated by Bonnie Christensen and published by Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press
• Batchelder Honor book, “Eidi,” written by Bodil Bredsdorff, translated by Kathryn Mahaffy and published by Farrar Straus Giroux
• Alex Award winner, “The Good Soldiers” by David Finkel, published by Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Related posts:

1. Author’s Guild Buy Button Site
2. 2010 Newbery Winner
3. The Dual Audience for Picture Books
4. Messages, Morals and Lessons in Picture Books
5. Who is Reading Your Work?

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