May 20 2008
Amazon’s Increasing Market Dominance Worries PUblishers
A real worry is the possibility Amazon will combine its content creation with its sales and distribution arm. For example, it would be much easier for a company like Amazon to set up an advance-free scenario with an author and provide monthly royalties based on its online sales. The infrastructure already exists and if Amazon had a large enough market share this set up might be very attractive to authors.
One publisher at London’s Book Fair said “It’s only a matter of time before they approach a major author to sign directly with them.’” Janet Evanovich decided to forego having a professional agent in favor of having her son handle this matter for her. Someone like Evanovich, with a huge and loyal following, could decide that cutting out one more step in the publishing to shelf process would increase her royalties.
Via Publishers Weekly.
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- Amazon’s profits are down despite great fourth quarter earnings.
May 20, 2008 @ 08:16:39
Something not just authors and publishers should worry about, but readers as well since it’s essentially a move to self-publishing.
May 20, 2008 @ 08:56:25
Ick. I’ve still not purchased anything from them since the Reba debacle, and I’ve not missed them. The more they become like Microsoft, the more I’ll make sure I turn to other options.
May 20, 2008 @ 09:15:55
I too haven’t purchased anything from the mighty behemoth that is known as Amazon since the Reba debacle. In fact, I closed my account. You don’t know what I went through to close said account. Now we have another example of their octopus-like ways. Bah, humbug! There are too many other online bookstores to bother with Amazon….used and new!
May 20, 2008 @ 18:28:02
Yet as the boycotts grow (Reba, POD monopoly, dog fighting video slaes, one click etc) they make even more money. I dropped them last month too but I suspect we are not a representative sample.
May 20, 2008 @ 19:21:13
They might miss me, I used to support them singlehandedly. (Sheepish grin.) Oh, well, making my local BN happy. Too bad Borders is too far away.
May 20, 2008 @ 20:20:57
I get the publishers’ worries, but I’d appreciate more explanation as to why this is a bad thing for authors.
May 20, 2008 @ 20:24:30
Borders new online store should be up and going at some point. Just throwing that out there. :)
May 20, 2008 @ 20:26:00
Kimber An, anything that attempts to control that big a slice of the pie isn’t ever a good thing. They get authors in their stable and then they start deciding to cut into things like royalties, or editorial decisions. Who knows.
I don’t want Amazon in my business.
They are a retail store. Let them stay that way.
May 20, 2008 @ 20:33:15
If there are editorial decisions. Again, you’re talking about basically self-publishing. And if Amazon does start offering those services a publisher does–editorial, cover art, blurbs, as an author you would need to evaluate them just like you would any other publisher. But if they don’t offer those services, then I suppose it’s no big deal for the author, as long as you feel you don’t need editing–or don’t mind paying a professional service to do it–as well as cover art, etc.
May 20, 2008 @ 22:12:41
Nah. I like having somebody do those things for me.
;)
May 21, 2008 @ 04:25:29
I don’t see the problem. They have an increasing market share because they provide a good service for the consumer. Online book shops are way better than high street for the sort of stuff I want to buy. If I could find my books in the high street I would. I also use Microsoft Windows because its convenient and easy – and that doesn’t seem to have killed off every other software developer quite yet.
May 21, 2008 @ 14:56:13
I would worry more about it if publishers had not already done their big fish eats little fish thing. Many of the publishers I bought paperbacks from when out are either dead or swallowed up– Curtis, Ace, Lancer, Berkley, DAW, Magnum, Paperback Library, Popular Library, Fawcett, Paperjacks, MacFadden and some I’m sure I have forgotten.
May 22, 2008 @ 10:27:05
You should be much more concerned about a possible acquisition of Borders by B&N. Amazon is much less likely to dictate to publishers about what to publish (unlike B&N, where the buyers often say, “I won’t support this book unless you do X to it.”)