The iPad is now out.

Though reviews from the early adopters are mixed, the functionality and use of the techie gadget du jour is beside the point. On April first, the e-book war between Amazon and publishers, spurred by Apple’s almost overnight rise into the e-book market, launched into phase two. Two months ago, Ben Parr noted:

Amazon’s clearly worried, which is why it’s launching an app store and used its earnings report to remind us that the Kindle is far from dead. But if publishers decide to abandon the Kindle, then Apple will have won the war by default.

That’s why Amazon decided to use its biggest weapon, Amazon.com itself, against Macmillan to send a message to every publisher: If you don’t play by its rules, then you can’t be in its store. While a publisher can likely survive without the Kindle, the same cannot be said for Amazon.com. Publishers simply cannot afford to leave the world’s largest online retailer.

The Kindle and the iPad offer different experiences. The Kindle’s battery life and e-ink are strong selling points for the device as a reader, but the iPad offers so much more. Apple’s banking on those extra features and its undeniable reach to turn the Kindle into an endangered species.

By mid-March, Amazon had suffered backlash for their hardline against Macmillan and started backpedling — somewhat. Some publishers would be able to set their own prices. But not all. Via Mashable, Christine Warren noted:

The agreements (with Amazon) that have been made with the five publishers signed to work with Apple — Macmillan, Harper Collins, Penguin, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster — will not be passed on to smaller publishers.

It seems even the agreement with the other four publishers outside of Macmillan (known as Agency Four) isn’t set in stone.

Cader also writes:

“The indications are that if the Agency Four have not finalized new digital sales agreements with Amazon prior to the launch of Apple’s iPad, they could face delisting from direct sale at Amazon, as Macmillan did.”

Translation: If those publishers don’t finalize a new digital agreement with Amazon before the launch of the iPad, they risk being removed from Amazon.com.

Amazon has reached agency deals with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette. But not Penguin:

Predictions that the move to an agency model would be messy have proven correct with the most serious consequence being the inability of Penguin and Amazon to reach an agreement over terms of sale. As a result, Penguin e-books released beginning today will not be available at the Kindle store. E-books released prior to April 1 are still for sale at the $9.99 price.

Where Penguin books are available: Barnes and Noble.com, Sony, Kobo, eBooks.com, reader applications on the iPhone and soon on the iBookstore for the iPad.
But however this new age in digital books resolves itself, authors once again are caught in the middle. While Penguin and Amazon work to resolve their issues on the e-book front (Penguin’s print titles are still available on Amazon’s store), who can say how many e-sales Penguin authors have lost in the interim?

Who do you think will win this war? Amazon? or Apple? What about the iPad? Revolutionary e-reader or overhyped gadget?

Kathleen Bolton is co-founder of Writer Unboxed. She has written two novels under the pseudonym Cassidy Calloway: Confessions of a First Daughter, and Secrets of a First Daughter--both books in a YA series about the misadventures of the U.S. President's teen-aged daughter, published by HarperCollins.
Kathleen Bolton
View all posts by Kathleen Bolton
Kathleen's website
If you enjoyed this post, please consider spreading the word using one of our social-media buttons. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

8 Comments »