Saturday, May 17, 2008

Big BullyBoy Amazon

UK's Publishing News has a report on UK publishers increasing concern over Amazon's bullying tactics. From their report:

PUBLISHERS ARE REACTING angrily to what one senior executive described as a “crude” attempt by Amazon to increase its discount. “It is going from publisher to publisher with extortionate demands, and if it does manage to get a figure from one publisher it is then going back to the first house and saying x has agreed to such-and-such.”

Bloomsbury rec­ently had a terms dispute with the bookseller which resulted in Amazon removing the 'Buy Now' button from certain Bloomsbury titles on its site. But one CEO commented: “We are prepared to lose a year's sales with Amazon. They may try many things but we are not moving. We have been foolish enough to give in and grant generous terms in the past, but we're not giving any more.”

1 comment:

Michael Herrmann said...

Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't similar tactics actually be against the law in the U.S.?