It’s definitely interesting. There should be a reality TV show for this. I would be glued to my seat. I’m fascinated by all of it.

**dies laughing**

Zoe, for this alone, I say you are utterly brilliant.

I’m very interested to see (1) whether Amazon will respond and (2) how other publishers will react. Publishers definitely have to figure out how to ride the e-wave, and they have to figure out a good way to allow e-readers to share/borrow e-content.

Interesting times, to be sure.

But I agree absolutely that Macmillan does not NEED Amazon. What they need to do if they don’t like things is to set up their own Ebook store AND sell in other online venues. If they can get the other major publishers who are unhappy about this to go with them, Amazon will lose some of it’s power.

Amazon has every right to sell or not sell whatever they want. They are not beholden to Macmillan. They also have the right to say “This is what we’re charging for products you want to put on OUR ereading device.” Complaining about how it hurts readers and how it hurts authors is an attempt to guilt Amazon for doing business how they wish in a free market.

Publishers who don’t like that can find another solution OUTSIDE OF Amazon.

But by continuing to WANT to be in Amazon, and not leaving, just fighting Amazon’s set policies for Kindle, they can’t win.

They’re fighting the wrong battle on the wrong field. If they want to win they have to do something that will hurt Amazon, everybody pull out. But until they all rise up together and do this, nothing will improve for them.

Though honestly I don’t hold out much hope for these publishers over the long haul anyway. They’re fighting digital and the realities of digital just like the music industry did. It’s like they’ve got blinders on and can’t even see what they’re doing now is a re-run for those of us at home who watched this already with music.

I’ve been on the fence about dealing with Amazon for a bit now and the only thing that has kept me going back is that it’s been easy—my wishlist is already there, my friends’ wishlists are already there. But now I’m ready to move on to another seller, especially for books. It’s ridiculous the way Amazon makes decisions for consumers instead of allowing consumers to make their own decisions. The reasons for such behavior hardly matters to me. The fact that it happens again and again does. And that it affects the writers’ incomes is even more irritating.