In a free market situation, a business can do what it likes, of course, until they achieve market dominance. Then rules against monopolistic behaviour kick in. Apparently there is already legal action in the States against Amazon for pressuring POD publishers who want to sell on Amazon to use an Amazon-owned POD printer. The other printers are up in arms because Amazon’s size means no POD publisher can afford to resist, and other printers feel this is unfair.

Um, yes, I’m in a unique position to be well aware of this. But I don’t think that has anything to do with the subject at hand, really, unless we’re going to start gathering grudges against Amazon because they’re good at their business and better at marketing than Sony.

I hope Amazon opens up and either lets other readers use the Kindle file format, or sells in open format for the rest of the world.

I agree that it’s unfortunate that people can’t go to Amazon and buy if they don’t have a Kindle, but I don’t think Amazon is either obligated to make it so or to open it to a foreign market. However, given the size of their business, they don’t strike me as lacking business sense, and I’d bet good money that availability to those outside the US is something they’re looking into, but because of the unique qualities of the Kindle (the Whispernet and their agreement with a cell phone provider) it wouldn’t be quick work to do this worldwide. In any business, it’s best to start with the smaller market and then grow from there if the market demands it.

What makes me sad is that foreigners, or people who have ebook readers other than Kindle, cannot buy my books through Amazon.

On the other hand, I think it is up to publisher and authors to market their books and provide wide enough distribution that customers can find them in other places. If your book is epublished, Amazon should not be (and certainly isn’t) the be all and end all of buying and distribution. It’s just another venue for it.

What makes me sad is that foreigners, or people who have ebook readers other than Kindle, cannot buy my books through Amazon. That doesn’t make any sort of business sense – unless Amazon has another agenda.

In a free market situation, a business can do what it likes, of course, until they achieve market dominance. Then rules against monopolistic behaviour kick in. Apparently there is already legal action in the States against Amazon for pressuring POD publishers who want to sell on Amazon to use an Amazon-owned POD printer. The other printers are up in arms because Amazon’s size means no POD publisher can afford to resist, and other printers feel this is unfair.

I hope Amazon opens up and either lets other readers use the Kindle file format, or sells in open format for the rest of the world.

Angela,

The strong-arming does not work like that. The Kindle does accept some (many?) file types from outside. The trouble comes because Amazon is by far the largest ebook retailer and has decided to sell ONLY in their own format.

But that wasn’t really what I was commenting on, that’s an entirely different topic of discussion. I was commenting on the capabilities of the Kindle and whether you can purchase books outside the Kindle system. And you can.

Sony doesn’t carry any but their own format of books either. Neither does Ereader.com. I don’t think anyone is going to be able to convince Amazon that they should be held to special rules just because we don’t like it.

And I don’t believe Amazon is the largest ebook retailer. Certainly couldn’t prove it by the statements I see. Are they a growing ebook retailer? Yes, but I think Fictionwise is still the biggest and I don’t think they’d be any more open to someone telling them what they can and can’t do with their business.

o my successful books on Amazon were dumped and 2 years later still have not been re-loaded. And when they finally are, they will only be accessible to people who have a Kindle. People with a Sony reader, or a Bebook like mine, are not allowed to buy them.

So it’s up to your publisher to make sure they set up a partnership with different distributors, such as Amazon, Sony and others, so that all people with all different kinds of readers can read them. I guess I don’t really see why we should “boycott” Amazon for doing what other businesses do.

In the mean time, try not to encourage them!

Since they are valid and good source of income and we have a contract with them that puts us into a business relationship, it would be quite foolish of me not to, don’t you think?

The strong-arming does not work like that. The Kindle does accept some (many?) file types from outside. The trouble comes because Amazon is by far the largest ebook retailer and has decided to sell ONLY in their own format. So my successful books on Amazon were dumped and 2 years later still have not been re-loaded. And when they finally are, they will only be accessible to people who have a Kindle. People with a Sony reader, or a Bebook like mine, are not allowed to buy them. And foreigners are completely ruled out because they are not allowed to buy a Kindle at all.

They are gambling that their proprietary system will become so well accepted in the States that we will stop looking anywhere else for books and magazines, and they will make zillions. I hope that will not happen, and that they will eventually have to start selling ebooks to anyone who wants to buy. In the mean time, try not to encourage them!

As far as I know, there isn’t a reader on the market that locks you into buying only from their store, but of course they’re going to make it easiest to do so.

With the Oprah discount, the Kindle is $100 cheaper than the new Sony Reader, and the Kindle has wi-fi, too. I don’t really care about the wi-fi, but I absolutely detest the idea of being tied to Amazon. I detest the idea of having to buy all my books from them, of them having direct wireless access to my reading device (my slight lust for the iPhone dimmed a bit when I heard about Apple’s killswitch, too), of them having a record of every book I’ve viewed and purchased. I’m concerned about PATRIOT act issues with the Kindle.

When I plunk down my money for a reader, I want that to be the end of it. The company that made my DVD player or my TV doesn’t have anything to do with the shows and movies I watch. Why should the company that makes my eReader get to look over my shoulder at every book I read?

If the Kindle weren’t so expensive and the ebooks expensive compared to my mass market books, I would probably be jumping on the bandwagon right now.