Amazon's Book Battle

Played -- and lost -- a game of chess with one of its larger publishers over the weekend.

In a tiff with Macmillan Books, the leading online retailer at one point pulled all of the publisher's titles over a pricing conflict behind a new digital agency model that Macmillan plans to implement in March.

Until a reversal yesterday, Macmillan e-books were pulled from Amazon's Kindle store. The e-tailer also stopped selling the physical books itself, leaving site availability exclusively to third-party merchants who no doubt could have taken advantage of the supply and demand shift in pricing.

It may be too early to call for a winner in this match, but Amazon isn't smelling like a champion.

Macmillan wants to dictate royalty rates and selling prices. It wants to receive 70% of e-book sales -- something that Amazon was already conceding , given certain caveats -- and have the flexibility to charge as much as $14.99 for new releases. Amazon has tried to stick closer to a $9.99 price point.

Final Chapter For Greenville Book Store

Before there was Barnes and Noble, before amazon.com and the Kindle, there was The Open Book. For nearly 40 years it's been Greenville's ...

The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site

Weber Books

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Product Description

Want to know the most profitable, lowest-risk idea for your home business? It's selling used books online, which is growing 33 percent annually, according to a November 2005 study by U.S. publishers.

Here is the complete text of the most popular book about online bookselling of all time: The Home-Based Bookstore: Start Your Own Business Selling Used Books on Amazon, eBay or Your Own Web Site

Learn how to start your business part-time, then work as little or as much as you want. This step-by-step guide, written by one of the most successful and highly rated sellers on Amazon.com and eBay, includes everything you need to know:

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Find books in your own neighborhood to resell profitably to a worldwide pool of ready buyers. Get the best sources for valuable used books at low prices.

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About the author:

Steve Weber started his home-based bookstore as a hobby in March 2000. Two months later, he quit his day job to sell used books full-time on Amazon.com and eBay, using his one-bedroom apartment in Virginia as warehouse and shipping depot. In the meantime, he has sold more than $1 million of used books to buyers in all 50 states and 31 foreign countries. In this step-by-step guide, Weber tells you how he took $80 in savings to buy his first batch of books, then invested the profits to build a successful business, and how you can too.

Dime Store Magic (Women of the Otherworld, Book 3)

Bantam

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Product Description

From one of today’s most original writers comes the mesmerizing tale of an exceptional young woman caught up in an otherworldly realm where some will stop at nothing to get what they want.

Paige Winterbourne was always either too young or too rebellious to succeed her mother as leader of one of the world’s most powerful elite organizations—the American Coven of Witches. Now that she is twenty-three and her mother is dead, the Elders can no longer deny her. But even Paige’s wildest antics can’t hold a candle to those of her new charge—an orphan who is all too willing to use her budding powers for evil...and evil is all too willing to claim her. For this girl is being pursued by a dark faction of the supernatural underworld. They are a vicious group who will do anything to woo the young, malleable, and extremely powerful neophyte, including commit murder—and frame Paige for the crime. It’s an initiation into adulthood, womanhood, and the brutal side of magic that Paige will have to do everything within her power to make sure they both survive.


From the Paperback edition.

Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!

Random House Books for Young Readers

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With Dr. Seuss as your guide, learning the alphabet is as easy as A, B, C.
BIG R, little r,
what begins with R?
Rosy's red rhinoceros.
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From Aunt Annie's Alligator to Rosy's red rhinoceros to a Zizzer-Zazzer-Zuzz, learning the alphabet is bound to be fun with Dr. Seuss. And with this small, sturdy board-book version of his classic ABC book (Dr. Seuss's ABC), even the tiniest tots can indulge in a little alphabetical education. Each letter is featured with Dr. Seuss's unmistakably nonsensical illustrations and text: "Lion with a lollipop," "Camel on the ceiling," "Uncle Ubb's umbrella and his underwear, too." The youngest readers-to-be will get lots of letter practice with the repetitive use of each letter and the easy-to-memorize rhythmic rhymes. Soon your favorite preschooler will be reading this book aloud to you! (Baby to preschool) --Emilie Coulter


Mead Black Marble Wide-Ruled Composition Book (09910)

MeadWestvaco Consumer & Office Products

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Classic comp book design features 100 sheets of wide ruled, white paper. The class schedule on the inside front cover, and the multiplication table, conversion table, and grammar tips on the inside back cover are tailored to today's busy students. Durable cover with secure sewn binding ensures long-lasting value.

The Real Book: Sixth Edition

Hal Leonard Corporation

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Product Description

The Real Books are the best-selling jazz books of all time. Since the 1970s, musicians have trusted these volumes to get them through every gig, night after night. The problem is that the books were illegally produced and distributed without any copyrights or royalties paid to the master composers who created these musical canons. Hal Leonard is very proud to present the first legitimate and legal editions of these books ever produced. You and your customers won't even notice the difference...the covers look the same, the engravings look the same, the songlist is nearly identical, and the price remains fair even on a musician's salary! But every conscientious musician and music store owner will appreciate that these books are now produced legally and ethically, benefitting the songwriters that we owe for some of the greatest music ever written! 400 songs, including: All Blues * Au Privave * Autumn Leaves (Les Feuilles Mortes) * Black Orpheus * Bluesette * Body and Soul * Bright Size Life * Con Alma * Dolphin Dance * Don't Get Around Much Anymore * Easy Living * Epistrophy * Falling in Love with Love * Footprints * Four * Four on Six * Giant Steps * Have You Met Miss Jones? * How High the Moon * I'll Remember April * Impressions * Lullaby of Birdland * Misty * My Funny Valentine * Oleo * Red Clay * Satin Doll * Sidewinder * Stella by Starlight * Take Five * There Is No Greater Love * Wave * and more!

The e-Book Wars Rage On


Amazon went on the offensive over the weekend in a brief battle with publisher Macmillan, pulling the publisher’s physical and digital titles on Friday from Amazon.com and the Kindle Store. By late Sunday, Macmillan was back and Amazon was beaten. While this is a victory for Apple and the iPad, it’s a loss for consumers, at least in the short term, and probably forever.

As of today, Amazon’s policy of standard pricing for e-books at $9.99 effectively ended, at least for Macmillan books, but it’s hard to imagine other publishers won’t follow with new pricing from $12.99 to $14.99. While many will blame Apple for this outcome, it’s a little more complicated than that.

Author Charles Stross gives his opinion on the matter, as well as offering a description of the competing business models, which look something like this:

Supply Chain Model: Author -> Publisher -> Wholesaler -> Bookstore -> Consumer
Agency Model: Author -> Publisher -> Fixed-price distributor -> Consumer

In the supply chain model, Amazon is both the wholesaler and bookstore. Amazon profits by buying in bulk from publishers at a discount and selling for what they can, and in the case of digital books that’s $9.99. It’s a great business model, unless you are a publisher or author. The agency model gives the publishers control over pricing and relegates Amazon to being a book store.

This is a zero-sum game, one which the publishers were losing until Steve Jobs introduced the iPad. Since Apple is interested in selling iPads and wanted to attract publishers, the agency model was adopted for iBooks, even if it meant higher, variable priced e-books.

Macmillan tried to negotiate a new deal with Amazon, or to continue the current deal with changes like delays for publishing cheaper e-books to protect hardcover sales. Amazon refused and Macmillan’s books got pulled. That resulted in a paid advertisement in Publishers Lunch on Saturday from Macmillan CEO John Sargent defending the agency model and saying nice things about Amazon.

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