In an effort to hang onto its 90 percent share of the American e-book market, Amazon is starting to talk tough with publishers in the weeks leading up to the iPad’s arrival. If you’ll remember, Amazon already got into a dustup with publishers that resulted in the eBook retailer removing the ‘buy’ buttons from resistant publishers’ products, only to reverse their decision days later. That dispute involved the publishers insisting on price-hikes up from Amazon’s market-tested $9.99 per title. The publishers wanted to charge agency rates, and change their existing deals with Amazon to match new deals they were making with Apple. Amazon conceded. You can read some background on that fight here.
Now, we see that the price for that concession might involve these publishers signing 3-year exclusive (fixed-price) contracts with Amazon or risk having the direct sale buttons removed from their titles at Amazon.
Read the specifics on the strong-arm tactics in the New York Times. The eBook Revolution is heating up!
