Amazon bows to Macmillan's decision

Washington: Online retailer Amazon has removed the access of electronic as well as printed editions of the books published by Macmillan after the publisher decided to hike prices of its e-books. The move will prove to be a shock for those who until now were able to buy e-books at $9.99 fixed as default price by the retailer for all best sellers and new releases. Customers who wanted to buy print editions could do so only from third-party sellers. Digital editions made for Amazon's Kindle device disappeared, The New York Times reported.

The "buy" buttons from thousands of titles published by Macmillan, including recent best sellers like "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel and "The Gathering Storm," by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, have been removed from Amazon.com. Amazon said that while it disagreed with Macmillan's stance, it would bow to the publisher's plan.

"We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles," Amazon said on its website Sunday. "We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books".

Under Macmillan's new policy, which would be effective from March, the online retailer will serve as an agent and get a commission of 30 percent of the price of each book fixed by the publisher. E-book editions of newly released adult general fiction and nonfiction books will cost between $12.99 and $14.99.

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