In that full-page New York Times advertisement today, Macmillan took a more aggressive stance in the ongoing debate with Amazon over eBook pricing.
The advertisement for Atul Gawande’s new book, “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right,” has a bold phrase at the bottom: “Available at booksellers everywhere except Amazon.” Published by Metropolitan Books, a publisher under the Macmillan umbrella, the book is currently not available for direct sale on Amazon (as of this 1:03 p.m. writing, follow this link to check over the course of the day).
This is the second time Macmillan has used ads in the battle. In a paid advertisement in Publishers Marketplace, Macmillan CEO John Sargent confirmed that Amazon (AMZN) had stopped directly selling books by the publisher. “It is impossible to reach you all in the very limited timeframe we are working under, so I have sent this message in unorthodox form,” he wrote in that advertisement addressed to “Macmillan authors/illustrators and the literary agent community.”
What do you think? Will these advertisements help in the price fight? You can see a larger copy of the ad after the jump. Follow this link for more coverage of the Macmillan and Amazon standoff.
