Publisher Macmillan and global online bookstore Amazon were engaged in battle this week. The long-short of it is that Macmillan demanded higher profit margins and higher prices for the e-books sold through Amazon and Amazon responded by ceasing all sales of Macmillans' books (both e-books and hard copies).
The story can be found here. The end of the story had Amazon acceding defeat, but not without resentment: "we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles." (Fancy that, a publisher having 'monopoly' over its own titles!)
Anwyay, the most amusing thing in the whole debacle was this advertisement in the New York Times, which read: "available at booksellers everywhere except Amazon":
I note that at the time of writing, the book in question is still not available through Amazon.
Edit: For the interested, Salon's Laura Miller provides an in-depth discussion here.
A Further Edit: Author Scott Westerfield posted his opinion on the topic at his blog here, with such eloquence and humour that I now think I absolutely must get hold of one of his books.
