Amazon Snaffu

Oy vey. More hours spent on the phone with Amazon.

Last week one of our Kindles had a meltdown and lost months of submission (meaning hours of extra work culling our email and rebuilding our list). Amazon offered to replace the model, failing to mention there's a four-week delay while they back order (from where I wonder?) the original device. So I call Amazon and they tell me they can happily send me the next-generation immediately- FOR AN EXTRA $50 BUCKS!

So...device breaks and I can wait a month for it to be replaced, or I can spend more money to upgrade? Um, what?

Our voices are now hoarse, but Amazon will send us a Kindle 2.0, at no cost, via next-day mail. But why, I wonder, did we have to kick and scream? Shouldn't this have been standard business practice?

Signed,
Apoplectic at Astor Place (jmc)

Harper and Hachette Join Macmillian in Kindle Dispute

In case you haven't heard, it's now Macmillan, Harper, and Hachette committing to the "agency model" for E-book sales, whereby publishers set the sales price and retailers keep 30%. This means new releases from these houses (and most likely more to follow) will no longer be available for Amazon's much-disputed $9.99 on the Kindle. The new kid in town, Apple's iPad, operates on the agency model.

Frankly, though my back doesn't miss carting around manuscripts, the rest of me misses good ol' fashioned paper.

-JMC