Tag: amazon
I have a suggestion for e-book vendors.
Start thinking about pricing your books so that they’re competitive with the paperback versions, not the hardcovers. Give you an example: I’m trying my best to get back to The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. The hardcover goes for eighteen bucks and the paperback nine and a half… and the Kindle version is eleven. I’m discovering that I’m more likely to finish nonfiction books on my Kindle than otherwise – don’t ask me why – but pegging the price as a discount on the hardcover is maybe affecting my cheapskate instincts. Which is why the darn book is on of the piles scattered about the house.
Obviously, a new book is a new book; but if you’re bringing out softcover reprints, maybe linking the new Kindle price to that will help with sales? – Or not. This thought just occurred to me.
Moe Lane
PS: Downloaded and read Confessions of a D-List Supervillain this morning. Overall: well worth the three bucks. Started strong, good character development of the hero/protagonist, action and plot maintained up until the last ‘chapters,’ which unfortunately did come across as slightly rushed (the book was originally a novella, and it still slightly shows). The book probably could have used another two chapters or so of development, but It Did Not Suck. Of course, I admit to having a certain weakness for books that have chapter headings like “Like I Need Another Reason to Invade Branson, Missouri” and get away with it…
#rsrh @ochocinco discovers the Right’s secret recruitment weapon.
Which is, of course, the Online Left. The short version: NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco innocently tweeted the fact that he had grabbed Glenn Beck’s new book Broke: The Plan to Restore Our Trust, Truth and Treasure, presumably to read on a flight. As the Blaze link shows, some of Ochocinco’s fans aren’t all that happy about it. Which doesn’t seem to have stopped Ochocinco from reading the book.
I note this not because it’s significant now, but because it might be interesting later. Judging from the guy’s Twitter feed, Ochocinco seems like the kind of person who isn’t shy about expressing his opinions; and right now it looks like all the shouting is just encouraging Ochocinco to finish the book (which he is reasonably enough finding interesting, even if he doesn’t actually agree with all of it). Assuming that he likes Beck’s book, or even finds it interesting, Ochocinco may talk about this later in a more public forum*, and in the process probably say something about Glenn Beck that will not be semantically equivalent to “Glenn Beck is the spawn of Satan.”
That’s when the fun will really start.
Moe Lane
Continue reading #rsrh @ochocinco discovers the Right’s secret recruitment weapon.
Sorry; not much to say non-politically, really.
Unless people actually wanted to hear me complain about my Amazon.com links – or more accurately, lack of same; which I assume that they do not.
And now, one of the better motivational speeches in recent cinematic history.
The 23.7 million dollar fly book.
It’s amazing what can happen when two Amazon.com vendors enter into what is effectively an automatic price raising war with each other. The short version: one vendor was automatically setting the sales price of a book that he was offering to be 99.8% of a second vendor’s price… and the second vendor was automatically setting his sales price to be 127% of the first vendor’s price*. The number got up to almost 24 million before anybody noticed.
Interesting thing, the used book retail industry. Especially when you mix it with the Internet.
Moe Lane
PS: This is the book:
*The guess by the author of the linked post is that the second vendor didn’t actually have the book, but could get their hands on it if somebody actually ordered it; and as having a good feedback record is a plus in this business, somebody might actually order from them even if they’re selling it at a higher price.
Colorado ‘Amazon tax’ unconstitutional?
[UPDATE: ‘Amazon tax laws,’ for those who are wondering, represent attempts to get around a Supreme Court ruling regarding out-of-state transactions. Residents of states who have a sales tax are theoretically expected to pay sales tax on all transactions, not just ones that take place in-state: however, vendors with out-of-state customers have long taken the position that trying to keep track of every jurisdiction’s sales tax rules is an undue burden upon them. The Supreme Court agreed, ruling that vendors are only required to track and collect sales tax on transactions for states where they had a physical presence. This effectively means that online retailers such as Amazon.com are effectively released from the burden of collecting sales tax information. Various Democratic state legislators – blanching at the very idea of trying to enforce individual residents from reporting their online transactions for taxation purposes – have attempted to make an end run around this ruling by writing legislation declaring in-state affiliates of online retailers as counting in terms of ‘physical location:’ Amazon’s typical response is to immediately cancel all affiliate programs in the targeted state, thus eliminating any need for them to collect sales tax information.]
That’s the preliminary ruling by a US District Court judge, at least: he’s ruled that the law is unconstitutional on Commerce Clause grounds, and has issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the state of Colorado to enforce the disclosure rules on out-of-state vendors before the deadline. I am not a lawyer, but the short version is that the judge ruled that the Amazon tax law violated the Commerce Clause by putting regulatory and disclosure burdens on out-of-state vendors that were not present on in-state ones; that the plaintiffs (including the Direct Marketing Association) had a valid chance to prevail in the broader case; and that until the issue was involved it would be inappropriate for the State of Colorado to collect information as per the Amazon tax law.
This is only a preliminary injunction, obviously: if this court or a higher one decides that the law is Constitutional after all it’ll be reversed. That’s why Colorado House Majority Leader Amy Stephens (Republican, of course) is introducing legislation repealing the original law. Colorado Senate Majority Leader John Morse (Democrat) is reflexively opposing the repeal, even though he’s sufficiently ignorant of the ruling as to apparently think that either the DMA or its members have revenue caps of $600/year. New Governor Hickenlooper is thus in a bit of a jam; he’s facing a House that decidedly flipped last election cycle and a looming court controversy, and a remarkably uneducated set of Senate allies on the other. That this can be fairly categorized as a ‘bit of a jam’ tells you a lot about the current ideological condition of the various state Democratic parties. Continue reading Colorado ‘Amazon tax’ unconstitutional?
Gov. Pat Quinn (D, IL) about to destroy IL Amazon affliliates?
It’s certainly looking that way: the Democrat-run (Democrat-dominated) state legislature has just passed a bill to tax online purchases (via Points and Figures, via Instapundit): the bill is just waiting for Governor Pat Quinn’s (D) signature, which is almost certainly inevitable. In fact, the state of Illinois is going to raise taxes across the board – because that’s what Democrats do. Business is good; raise taxes. Business is bad; raise taxes. Business is in a surreal zone where it’s actually a peanut butter sandwich; raise taxes on jelly and mandate jelly’s inclusion in all corporate endeavors.
And, just as inevitable as the sunrise, comes the first report that Amazon.com will end their Illinois Amazon Affiliate program in response. That first link is generally grim reading for Illinois residents: not only does it indicate that the big online retailers are apparently still perfectly willing to drop their affiliate programs in large states, but the smaller online retailers that depend on companies like Overstock and Amazon for their business are well aware that they can do their business in, say, Ohio. Translation: Illinois Democrats are about to damage their business tax base in the course of (unsuccessfully) trying to raise its business tax revenue.
“Business” as usual, in other words. Continue reading Gov. Pat Quinn (D, IL) about to destroy IL Amazon affliliates?
Colorado Democrats put more Amazon money in my pocket. #rsrh
(Via Instapundit) Not that I wanted them to, but if they’re going to insist on shutting down Colorado’s Amazon Affiliates program* I can at least look on the bright side. Fortunately, there are enough Marylander legislators with working brain cells to continue to make it possible for me to put up this link:
…and still hope to generate revenue from it. I’m truly sorry that people from North Carolina, Rhode Island, and now Colorado can’t, but it’s not my fault that all three states have Democratic-controlled legislatures.
Oh, yeah, full disclosure: I generate revenue from Amazon Associate links. As if you hadn’t guessed already.
Moe Lane
*More details here, including some pushback on the standard Lefty objections to Amazon.com ending its CO affiliates program. See also here for a site dedicated to reversing this.
Amazon shuts down its North Carolina affiliates program.
Who’s next?
Via Glenn Reynolds, it’s time for another round of Elections have Consequences!
Action: The North Carolinan legislature (run by Democrats) is about to provide legislation to the governor of North Carolina (Democrat) that allows North Carolina to collect sales tax from Internet transactions.
Reaction: Amazon has closed its Amazon Associates program to North Carolina residents.
To all North Carolinan bloggers and website owners out there – particularly the ones who helped to make sure that North Carolina kept its Democratic majority on the state level – my sincere sympathies; but I must note that this is what happens when you elect too many Democrats.
So stop doing that.
Moe Lane
PS: And before you think I’m being smug: I’m in a state (Maryland) dominated by the Democratic party myself. I’m pretty sure that they voted something like this down, but I trust them with fiscal policy about as far as I can throw them – and I can’t throw worth a darn.
So if you feel the need to buy something, well… here’s the site. Get it while the getting’s good, huh?
Crossposted to RedState.
The search parameter records of Amazon.com must be strange and terrible.
Approaching, in fact, the level of SAN loss. First, take a look at Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt – then take a look at what else people who looked at this looked at. Particularly this, and this.
Somebody’s mucking about with their search parameters; I’m sure of it.
Moe Lane
PS: What? Please. I have more couth than that. Besides, everybody knows that it’s not size that matters; it’s rotary speed.