As mentioned previously by Brian, the Macmillan Amazon story has been making something of a splash.

In terms of Amazon, I think that by trying to offer the best price to the consumer they are doing a good thing (Go Amazon!), but they should promote choice. As they indicate themselves, it should be the consumers that protest against publishers such as Macmillan (by not buying their titles where they are offered), instead of Amazon doing it for us.

Are Amazon however opening the door to increased prices from publishers? Although they believe that other publishers will not follow this route, is that only until they see how successful Macmillan is (or might be)? Could it be that prices going up might mean free ebooks become even further away on the horizon? I hope not!

I believe that competition is good and choice is even better. There are now comparison sites for audio downloads and hopefully in the future, similar ebook sites will follow. *Note to self, should I be setting this up?* Until then, we will just have to contend with hopping around various sites to see where the best price is (and the compatible formats) and I would like to see my options as open as possible.