Comments on: Apple’s proxy war with Amazon over ebook pricing and market http://www.itwriting.com/blog/2190-apples-proxy-war-with-amazon-over-ebook-pricing-and-market.html Tech writing blog Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:04:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: John http://www.itwriting.com/blog/2190-apples-proxy-war-with-amazon-over-ebook-pricing-and-market.html/comment-page-1#comment-160126 John Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:48:00 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/2190-apples-proxy-war-with-amazon-over-ebook-pricing-and-market.html#comment-160126 It doesn't matter whether MacMillan are right or wrong. The public doesn't care WHO the publisher of a book is. They do care that they don't get content and if they can't get it through Amazon - Macmillan will appear to be the protagonist and not the victim. Most publishers simply don't get it - they are trying to hang on to old models: some of the newer publishers such as O'Reilly DO get it. You can buy most of their books as iPhone apps for 3 quid each. I've bought 15 so far, 9 of them I didn't have and would never have bought, 3 I already had and wanted a quick reference for reading on the train, 3 of them I bought because they were later editions of books I already had E.g. Unix Power Tools. Flexible pricing is the key - they don't have to be tied to Amazon either, publishing as iPhone Apps or Android apps is a valid business model for technologically slanted books such as SciFi, tech titles etc. It doesn’t matter whether MacMillan are right or wrong. The public doesn’t care WHO the publisher of a book is.
They do care that they don’t get content and if they can’t get it through Amazon – Macmillan will appear to be the protagonist and not the victim.
Most publishers simply don’t get it – they are trying to hang on to old models: some of the newer publishers such as O’Reilly DO get it. You can buy most of their books as iPhone apps for 3 quid each. I’ve bought 15 so far, 9 of them I didn’t have and would never have bought, 3 I already had and wanted a quick reference for reading on the train, 3 of them I bought because they were later editions of books I already had E.g. Unix Power Tools.

Flexible pricing is the key – they don’t have to be tied to Amazon either, publishing as iPhone Apps or Android apps is a valid business model for technologically slanted books such as SciFi, tech titles etc.

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