The funny thing about the letter I got from Amazon a little while ago, is that I perfectly agree with its beginning.
I think paperbacks were a great thing. Most of the books in the house I grew up in were paperbacks, in several languages.
I even recognize the claim made by 'serious literature types' regarding the danger of paperbacks back then, and regarding eBooks now. The claim that these 'new inventions' are 'ruining the industry'.
Heck, I'm a publisher who publishes only eBooks in the past four years, you really don't need to convince me on that account.
However, I don't think that the policy of asking publishers to set their prices a certain way is a good thing.
Amazon asks Hachette etc. to lower the price of eBooks, and in a way it asks me to raise them (like I said, I can no longer give free samples of my books via Amazon).
So this policy by Amazon asks everyone to play on the same field at least as far as prices are concerned.
I don't think that this is a good thing. I don't think that the average customer trusts me the same way it trusts Hachette. Probably they never even heard of me.
So how can I get some market share if Hachette and I are required to play on the same field?
I can't, is the short answer.
Ergo, this policy by Amazon is actually not so good for the 'biodiversity' of the eBooks industry...
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