Headline Feeds
Amazon.com confirmed Wednesday that it will begin charging book publishers for having their titles appear in e-mail promotions sent to the e-tail giant's customers.
Word of the new fees was first reported in the Wall Street Journal, which quoted publishers as saying the fees would start at US$10,000 for the right to have a book considered for review and that the fees could run as high as $17,000 because of advertising tie-ins.
"It's an extension of what we've already been doing with publishers," Amazon spokeswoman Kristin Schaefer told the E-Commerce Times. "I'm not aware of any complaints."
Editors Decide
According to Schaefer, the books will still be screened by Amazon's editors, and only books deemed worthy of praise will be included in the e-mails, which are sent to people who have purchased books from Amazon in the past. Customers will also have access to information about which books are listed in the e-mails because of paid placement.
The program will be up and running within the next few weeks, Schaefer said.
"Purely from a revenue perspective, this is potentially a good move
for Amazon," Morningstar.com analyst David Kathman told the E-Commerce
Times. "But, as always, they're walking a fine line between using their
customer 
base of 29 million to generate revenue, and alienating those same
customers."
Kathman said Amazon is savvy enough to watch for fallout from the move and act accordingly.
"I'm sure Amazon will gauge the reaction, and that they're prepared to backtrack if the backlash is too great," the analyst said.
Relationship Tense
The latest fees are expected to strain an already tense relationship between Amazon and those in the traditional publishing industry.
In November, Amazon drew fire from both publishers and authors when it started listing used books for sale on its main book site.
Amazon has defended its practice of accepting payment for placement in the past by pointing that brick-and-mortar retailers engage in the same practice. For instance, supermarkets charge manufacturers for the right to have their products displayed prominently on store shelves, and many traditional bookstores have similar policies.
Busy Days in Seattle
Amazon has been making headlines ever since it announced it would lay of 1,300 workers in a bid for profits by year's end. On Tuesday, the company vigorously defended itself from an analyst's report warning that the company could face a cash squeeze from creditors. A company spokesman was quick to say the analyst's report was "chock full of errors."
There have also been published accounts of staged employee walkouts at Amazon's Seattle, Washington headquarters, where hundreds of workers lost their customer service jobs as part of the workforce reduction. The protests reportedly center on a severance agreement that Amazon has asked fired workers to sign.
Bezos May Sell Stock
Meanwhile, Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos recently told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that he may sell some of the Amazon stock he holds personally.
Bezos filed documents with the agency that say he may
sell up to 375,000 shares. Those shares have a current market value
of about $6 million. Although the SEC filing frees the shares for sale, it
does not necessarily mean they will be sold.
