Tech gadabout Paul Carr offers an entertaining, cynical perspective on the publishing industry and the MacMillan/Kindle pricing clash in particular. That it’s spewed out by the blogger to meet his 1000-word-a-week contractual obligation while he’s far behind on his book deadline adds to the charm. May his e-book be overpriced and his harcover book come with limited edition embossed bookmarks. Just kidding.

For the first time in the UK since 1997, and ever in the US, publishers are able to set ¿ and enforce- their own prices on ebooks. And they will; not to make a fair return on ebooks but rather to cripple their sales in order to protect early hardback book sales. They’ve admitted as much themselves, saying that prices will start high on hardback release, before dropping steadily over time.

The idea that this benefits anyone, least of all authors, is laughable. Every day, thousands more book lovers move to ebooks. These are people who devour books, and who are attracted by the convenience of getting new releases delivered instantly. Yes, there’s a chance that they’ll keep buying hardback books if ebooks go up in price. But now they’ve already invested in ereaders so there’s even more of a chance that they’ll simply turn to piracy to get their fix. It’s like if record labels had tried to encourage people to keep buying CDs by raising the price of mp3 downloads (or slapping restrictive DRM on them). All that would likely have done is drive even more people to Limewire.

Also, here’s another quote pulled out completely out of context because I like it better that way:

Much like the monarchy, Macmillan started life in Britain even though it’s now controlled by Germans.