Comments on: A Call For Author Support

By: Kristen B.

Kristen B. — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 03:09:54 +0000

I think it is unfortunate for the writers to be in the midst of Amazon and Macmillan disagreements. I haven't tried buying books from Amazon because I usually like to go to local bookstores and buy books. But I haven't read books ever since I finished Dan Brown's novel. Maybe I should check the other links, which you have suggested, so that I could buy Sweet Valley pocketbooks and other kind of suspense novels. Kristen B. Magnavox mdr513h Reviewer

By: Ondrej from Most Popular Books

Ondrej from Most Popular Books — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:39:24 +0000

I believe it will take a lot of time before eBooks will start to be generally accepted as a valid alternative to classic paperback books – and by accepted I mean they won’t be over or under priced, will have nearly the same size of audience and last but not the least, it won’t all depend on one major company.

By: Theresa M. Moore

Theresa M. Moore — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:12:02 +0000

I realize that this is somewhat late in the game, but I am one of those authors who needs some support. I paid attention to the MacMillan/Amazon debacle, and I have seen what the giant has done to the garden. I publish and sell my books and ebooks on my own site, and while they are on Amazon and Kindle, I have seen little sales if at all. Everyone here has talked about visiting the local brick and mortar store or other big aggregating sites, but few have actually thought of visiting the authors’ own sites. Think about that while you’re busy talking about book sales. I offer free shipping, and I have a small catalog in a variety of formats. If you want to find books of your favorite genre trying using their keywords instead of surfing Amazon.

By: Mark Mathison

Mark Mathison — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:42:35 +0000

Really? Guess I am behind the power curve in a big way on this one.
One question: why are MacMillan books not available on Amazon as I am typing? Is this NOT related to your discussion?
Sorry if I am way off topic and, regardless of my topical comments or not, you, dude, totally rock as an author!! I have enjoyed everything I have ever picked up of yours. Keep up the good work, glad there is no big impact for you, and I will continue to buy your books wherever I can get them.

Thanks for all your writing efforts!

By: John Scalzi

John Scalzi — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:29:34 +0000

Dude, everything about this has been resolved for over a month.

By: Mark Mathison

Mark Mathison — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:27:26 +0000

Is this really about Anti-Kindle feelings? Amazon doesn’t want to raise the price of E-books. The books with amazingly small overhead for publishers. Said publishers want to make up to $5 more for every e-book sold. If I thought the authors were going to see this $5 dollars I would be wailing and gnashing my teeth too. However, it appears to me that the only entity trying to look after the little guy (granted the little guy in this case bought into the Kindle ecosphere) is Amazon.

By: krimhorn

krimhorn — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 04:09:06 +0000

“If you want to make a statement here, don’t make it against a corporation, who isn’t listening anyway. ”
And buy from another corporation who isn’t listening either. I’d certainly be willing to buy directly froom the Author, but the fact is MacMillan’s desire is to screw Your CUSTOMERS.

Amazon was paying MacMillan what they wanted and then taking a loss to sell the ebooks cheaper than paperbacks (how they should be priced btw), MacMillan didn’t like this and started getting other publishers to put the squeeze on Amazon to let the pubs raise the prices (yeah, they said they also wanted a lower cost tier but I trust that statement about as far as I can throw ‘em).

This whole brouhaha started because MacMillan wanted to essentially fix the price on ebooks and Amazon wasn’t having any of it.

If you’re so concerned about other authors making their livelihood push your publisher’s parent company to think about your customers and not their bottom line. There’s two sides to this issue and Amazon’s not the one on the wrong side.

By: A.R.Yngve

A.R.Yngve — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:45:10 +0000

I suppose an Alternate Universe story/book titled “The World Where Writers Were Not Screwed” would be deemed too unbelievable by pretty much everybody…

By: Scott Nicholson

Scott Nicholson — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:08:05 +0000

I’ve read a thousand blog posts on this and figure the writer gets screwed anyway, in all forms, throughout history. Why should this be any different? I’ve tried publishing several different ways and none of them are easy. Good luck to you authors. The cool thing is between the boycotts and anti-boycotts, I haven’t seen this many political sales of books since the good ol’ Franken v. Coulter v. Michael Moore v. O’Reilly days.

People are actually talking about books again.

Scott Nicholson
The Red Church

By: Jasmine

Jasmine — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:13:22 +0000

From a consumer point of view, those ebooks available at MacMillan’s online store cost more than they did on Amazon! Greed, the American Way again! Doesn’t anyone realize that All of the publishers will demand higher prices and it hurts us the consumers, in the pocketbook. I don’t plan on buying those more expensive books. Do you think Mac Millan cares what the authors earn? Of course not, the publishers are more afraid that e-publishing will put them out of business. While I’m sure there will always be physical books, e-books will put some publishers out of business, it’s inevitable . I’m amazed at how many people are so set in their ways they will only read an actual book instead of try an e-reader. You read for the enjoyment of the content, not because it’s a paper book. It’s fear of the unknown, what people fear, they criticize. I’m not impressed with your logic, John. Or all these uninformed “so called book lovers” for arts sake!