In its second paid advertisement in Publishers Marketplace about the Amazon affair, Macmillan CEO John Sargent spoke directly to his authors about why Amazon (AMZN) had removed the direct sale buttons for Macmillan books.
Follow this subscription only link to read the ad. Here is an excerpt: “Lastly, my deepest thanks to you, our authors and illustrators. Macmillan and Amazon as corporations had our differences that needed to be resolved. You are the ones whose books lost their buy buttons … I cannot tell you when we will resume business as usual with Amazon, and needless to say I can promise nothing on the buy buttons. You can tell by the tone of this letter though that I feel the time is getting near to hand.”
UPDATE: As of this 4:07 p.m. EST writing, those direct sale buttons had not returned. Earlier today the publisher took out a full-page New York Times advertisement for Atul Gawande’s new book, “The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right.” The ad includes the text: “Available at booksellers everywhere except Amazon.”
Here’s more coverage of this long, strange week: Macmillan received a supportive standing ovation at an industry program yesterday. GalleyCat was interviewed about the future of $9.99 eBooks. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has dipped his toe into the eBook pricing debate. Macmillan author John Scalzi has rejected boycott and urged readers to buy books instead. Meanwhile, some Amazon customers continue to boycott Kindle books priced higher than $9.99. As of this writing, 1,724 different comments have been posted in response to Amazon’s note to customers about the price war.
