In a post in the Kindle forums Amazon (AMZN) has written a statement with three dramatic points. The company admits they have stopped directly selling Macmillan books, will “capitulate” to Macmillan’s prices, and finally, believes customers will decide it the prices are “reasonable.”

The full text is included below, but here is the key statement that lays out the publishing industry’s debate: “Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book.”

Here is Amazon’s note: “Macmillan, one of the ‘big six’ publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.

“We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.

“Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy! Thank you for being a customer.”

In addition, Macmillan books are still not available directly from Amazon, as you can see by following links to John Scalzi‘s Old Man’s War or William Poundstone‘s Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value.

After a day of speculation and anonymously attributed claims, Macmillan CEO John Sargent confirmed that Amazon (AMZN) had stopped directly selling books by the publisher. “It is impossible to reach you all in the very limited timeframe we are working under, so I have sent this message in unorthodox form,” he wrote in a paid advertisement in Publishers Marketplace, addressed to “Macmillan authors/illustrators and the literary agent community.”

The story broke on Friday evening, as Amazon and Macmillan had a dispute over raising the standard eBook price from $9.99 to around $15. After negotiations ended in “impasse,” the online bookseller stopped directly selling Macmillan titles, only offering Macmillan books through outside vendors. The $9.99 price point has been a touchy subject all year. As we reported yesterday, a vocal contingent of Amazon customers are still encouraging others to boycott Kindle books that cost more than $9.99.

Here’s an excerpt from the Publishers Lunch ad: “Under the agency model, we will sell the digital editions of our books to consumers through our retailers. Our retailers will act as our agents and will take a 30% commission (the standard split today for many digital media businesses). The price will be set the price for each book individually. Our plan is to price the digital edition of most adult trade books in a price range from $14.99 to $5.99. At first release, concurrent with a hardcover, most titles will be priced between $14.99 and $12.99. E books will almost always appear day on date with the physical edition. Pricing will be dynamic over time.”

Last night the NY Times startled the publishing world with some news about Macmillan and Amazon (AMZN). Here is the paragraph that launched a thousand blog posts: “Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of electronic books from $9.99 to around $15. Amazon is expressing its strong disagreement by temporarily removing Macmillan books, said this person, who did not want to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the matter.”

No matter how this situation is sorted out, publishers will soon have to convince another constituency: Amazon customers. We reported today that scores of Amazon customers are urging others to boycott books priced over $9.99.

Many other outlets have covered this strange affair, including: the AP and Publishers Weekly and BoingBoing and VentureBeat and John Scalzi and Munsey’s the LA Times and MediaMemo and Mashable.

Requests for comment have not been returned, but Macmillan books are still not available directly from Amazon, as you can see by following links to John Scalzi‘s Old Man’s War or William Poundstone‘s Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value. Tune in tomorrow for any new developments.

As Macmillan and Amazon (AMZN) appear to face off over Amazon’s common $9.99 price for Kindle books, we took a look at publishing’s next opponent in the price wars: eBook readers.

As publishers and the monolithic bookseller debate this eBook price point, GalleyCat went to the Amazon discussion forums to find out what customers expect. We discovered that customers are still boycotting books priced more than $9.99–so far, 2,183 customers have tagged 3,302 books with the “9.99 boycott” label.

Last month, one Amazon customer wrote a brief manifesto entitled: “Support the $9.99 Boycott“–drawing 122 customer responses. Here’s an excerpt: “Boycott the kindle edition books offered for over $9.99. A couple of the authors that I have read in the past are offering their books for more than $9.99. I will obtain these books for free from the library. If we consumers don’t hold the line, the prices will escalate while the economy continues to bomb. GREEDY TURDS!”

While we are not endorsing these customer views, it is important to note that the Amazon customer base is exerting a pressure on the company to keep prices low. Other popular tags from Kindle readers include: “outrageous kindle price” and “books to kindle when price goes down.” We have been reporting on this trend since April 2009, but these vocal customers haven’t quit.

Amazon has not replied to our request for comment, but, as of this writing, Macmillan books like John Scalzi‘s Old Man’s War and William Poundstone‘s Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value are not available for direct sale from Amazon. We will keep you posted as the story develops. In the meantime, here’s more from BoingBoing and VentureBeat and John Scalzi and Munsey’s and the LA Times and and MediaMemo.

The eBook pricing wars seemed to have taken a dramatic turn. Last night the NY Times published a report where an unnamed source claimed that Macmillan and Amazon (AMZN) are currently in dispute about eBook prices.

Here is an excerpt: “Macmillan, like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of electronic books from $9.99 to around $15. Amazon is expressing its strong disagreement by temporarily removing Macmillan books, said this person, who did not want to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the matter.”

It appears that Macmillan books are still not available directly from Amazon, as you can see by following this link to John Scalzi‘s Old Man’s War or this link to William Poundstone‘s Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value.

We’ve contacted Amazon with a request for comment, and we will keep you updated as the story evolves. In the meantime, here’s more from BoingBoing and VentureBeat and John Scalzi and Munsey’s.

Yesterday, eBookNewser asked readers whether they felt, from how it was introduced at the iPad event, that iBooks was an afterthought in its iPad concept. One reader, posting as “remaines,” offered a very thoughtful response that we want to share:

“I don’t think iBooks is an afterthought, nor is it central to Apple’s thinking–it’s part of a larger vision of how we consume media of all forms. Just one part of the larger whole. There are plenty of people who don’t want to throw down a chunk of change for a device that does one or a few things–like a dedicated ereader. Apple is betting that, just as many of us were delighted to consolidate our phone, iPod, and Palm or Blackberry into one object that met all our communication needs, people will want to watch movies, read books, and play games all with one object that can go wherever we want to do those things.”

As to why iBooks got such a small share of the spotlight during Steve Jobs presentation, our reader said, “Steve Jobs knows who his audience is. He knows that, although we in publishing are watching the ereader aspect eagerly, most of the people in that room were more interested in other things. He played to his audience.”

Anybody else care to weigh in?

Quite frankly, I did’t get much done this week. All the iPad business kept me from thinking too much about the fate of my own book when it comes to digital. But I want to check in nonetheless, and let you know a few of the things I’m thinking about for upcoming weeks.

First, I should tell you that paper galleys of Cradle Book have just come in, so the most visible part of the pre-pub cycle is about to begin. Copies will go out to reviewers, and hopefully there will be a few reviews. I’ll also be planning a little book tour. While all this is going on, I’ve got to finish my eBook homework and make sure my eBook is good and ready for the book’s June 1 pub date.

So next week I’ll press on and look into some other ways one can create an eBook. One ancilary question I do want to look into is how to create eBooks of liniated poetry, which is most of what BOA, my publisher, specializes in (though my book is old-fashioned prose). My editor told me he didn’t know of a way to do liniated poetry such that the integrity of the line breaks was maintained in the digital version, but I know that, for instance, Yale University Press has published eBooks of its recent Younger Poetry Prize winners on Kinle, and Penguin has lots of its poetry up there too, and you can resize the text and still keep the line breaks. So I’m going to make some calls…

According to the gadget blog Pocket Lint, early iPad buyers won’t find the iBooks app on their new Apple tablets. The blog reports on a comparison first noticed by the UK Register–Apple’s UK page for the iPad and the US page are exactly the same except for the fact that the UK page is missing iBooks.

Pocket Lint contacted Apple for an explanation, and this is what an Apple spokesperson told them: “All I can confirm at present is what’s in the press release: iBookstore will be available in the US at launch. International availability will be announced at a later date.”

Pocket Lint attributes this to the time it takes to get international rights to sell titles, and the blog also speculates on the likelihood that iBooks won’t accept books not bought from Apple, with which we agree, and which we think is really bad.

eBookNewser was curious as to whether Amazon would be putting its Kindle app on the iPad, given how directly Apple set iPad up as competition for the Kindle. We got a note back from Andrew Herdener, Amazon’s Director of Communications. It was clearly a cut-and-paste job with the company line in response to iPad:

“Thanks for your inquiry. Customers can read and sync their Kindle books on iPhones, iPod touches, PCs, and soon Blackberrys, Macs, and iPads. Kindle is purpose-built for reading. Weighing in at less than 0.64 pounds, Kindle fits comfortably in one hand for hours, has an e-ink display that is easy on the eyes even in bright daylight, two weeks of battery life, and 3G wireless with no monthly fees—all at a $259 price. Kindle editions of New York Times Bestsellers and most New Releases are only $9.99.”

So indeed Amazon will put the Kindle app on iPad. What’s interesting to note is how Amazon emphasizes what differentiates Kindle from iPad: that “Kindle is purpose-built for reading,” is “easy on the eyes” and offers “3G wireless with no monthy fees.” And it’ll even have Apps soon! Given yesterday’s revelation that “millions of people now own Kindles,” Amazon seems remarkably unthreatened by iPad.

We also contacted Lexcycle, the company behind the Stanza iPhone eReading app, which is owned by Amazon; Stanza referred us to Amazon, so see the above for their response.

Calvin Reid, senior news editor and comics guru at Publishers Weekly, responded a few weeks ago to eBookNewser’s earlier poll about his hopes for the then-rumored Apple tablet.

Here’s what he said then: “Now I’m not sure that the Tablet will be the be-all device for reading either but certainly a device that offers multiple functions and a high quality UI experience (color, multimedia, web browsing, high res screen) seems closer to what we all think the digital reading experience should be. Or at least what I think it should be. And of course, I’m an Apple groupie like so many others. I’m curious to see if Jobs can come up with a new device that I’ll love as much as the iPod Touch (yes, its awesome) I got for Christmas.”

Now, after having followed Wednesday’s announcement, he’s less impressed than he hoped to be, though the comics world seems to be atwitter. Here’s what he told eBookNewser after the iPad event:

“I’m mildly disappointed in the iPad–I can’t believe it does not offer multitasking–but I remain impressed by the devices potential and obvious utility. I think it will offer the kind of reading and multimedia experineces we speculated about. The comics world is buzzing about it.”