dimsumthinking

It fascinates me that stories spin different ways depending on who is involved.

Ex 1: Hillary Clinton calling people on the other side deplorable was in the news for a while as disrespectful and just awful - but Donald Trump calling people on the other side vermin was barely noticed.

Ex 2: Apple taking 30% from people selling on their platform has been in my newsfeed many times a week for years and yet Amazon takes 70% of books I sell for more than $10 and I hear nothing about that.

Jan 18, 2024 at 4:19pmWeb
Show threadmav Jan 18, 2024

@dimsumthinking I mean, you're not wrong, but you can sell books through other markets (admittedly, barely) and people can still read them without asking Bezos' permission.

My greatest frustration with the Epic thing is that it never got past a payments issue into "let people use alternate browsers, app stores, etc if they want to." Looks like it'll never happen now.

Show threaddimsumthinkingJan 18, 2024
@mav I can sell apps through other platforms and use them without apples permission. I’m not defending apple just struck by the discussion
Show threadsanguishJan 18, 2024

@dimsumthinking people value books more than the value software.

That so many people bitch about a $1.99 app devalues it.

also, I don’t think anyone knows that Amazon takes 70% for ebooks (I didn’t)

Show threaddimsumthinkingJan 18, 2024
@sanguish agree on both. It’s why I mention it now and then. They take 30% for books less than $10 but that only started when Apple entered the market
Show threadtriswebJan 18, 2024

@dimsumthinking Conditioned expectations.

Also a lot of money and intention in messaging and image for each. It is designed.

Show threadMark MajorJan 18, 2024
@dimsumthinking One of many reasons my wife and I never buy through Amazon unless it's literally the only place to get something, and even then it has to be a need, not a want.
Show threadBrian MarickJan 21, 2024
@dimsumthinking Ex. 2: I have a hunch that journalists know enough about publishing that 70% doesn’t seem that bad. When their book is sold, its deal will be worse. (My first book was with Prentice-Hall, and best case I’d get 15%. For overseas sales it was less, etc. etc.) Also a hunch that they don’t think a book without a paper version really counts as a book.
Show threaddimsumthinkingJan 21, 2024
@marick 1 - i agree with all of that except that they complain about apples 30% for digital only but not amazons 70% so I think that’s not why. 2- you got 15% of net to the publisher so when the publisher sold through Amazon (who I believe was taking 50% from them) you were earning 7.5%. My complaint is more about the inbalance in umbrage - that 30% is too high (it might be) but 70% isn’t (although it’s higher than 40%)
Show threadBrian MarickJan 21, 2024
@dimsumthinking I support your umbrage, though my first book predates Amazon by a good while. After Amazon appeared, I was mostly cringing that Prentice-Hall kept selling a print-on-demand book that I thought was entirely out of date. You can still buy it, apparently not through a used-book channel, which, well: cringe.
Show threadrabbleMar 16, 2024
@dimsumthinking authors should clearly be demanding that Amazon’s platforms be opened up and take a lower % of gross.