Hundreds of writers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are protesting Amazon’s e-book pricing tactics in a fight that’s becoming reminiscent of the one Amazon is having with Hachette in the U.S.
In an open letter set to appear in major European publications today, hundreds of writers, artists and readers have accused Amazon of manipulating its recommended reading lists and lying to customers about book availability in a dispute between the online book seller and Swedish-based Bonnier, according to The New York Times.
Earlier this month, John Grishman, Stephen King, and 900 other authors, pressed Amazon to end the dispute with Hachette in an advertisement in The New York Times. Similarly, some major German-language writers have signed on to this fight, including Elfriede Jelinek, a Nobel Prize winner in Literature, and popular crime novelists, Ingrid Noll and Nele Neuhaus.
In the case of Bonnier, Amazon contends that Bonnier is asking them to pay significantly more when it sells a digital edition than when it sells a print edition of the same title.
“For the majority of their titles, Bonnier have chosen to set terms that make it significantly more expensive for us to buy a digital edition than it is to buy the print edition of the same title,” Amazon said, in a statement sent to GeekWire today. “This is a poor choice because with an e-book, there’s no printing, no over-printing, no need to forecast, no returns, no lost sales due to out of stock, no warehousing costs, and no transportation. E-books can and should be less expensive than print books, and this should be reflected in the terms under which booksellers buy their books from publishers.”
As a side note, there are some differences between this fight, and the one in the U.S. In Germany and Austria, for instance, pricing is protected by laws that forbid discounts.
Still, Amazon says: “The fact is Bonnier’s terms are out of step with other major German publishers. We are working diligently with Bonnier to reach a new agreement more in line with typical industry terms in Germany.”
