Comments on: Publishers: What are you doing while Amazon eats your lunch?

By: fantomaster

fantomaster — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 18:26:12 +0000

Enjoying dinner, what else? :) Publishers: What are you doing while Amazon eats your lunch? http://t.co/Y2d9xR1n

By: fantomaster

fantomaster — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 18:26:13 +0000

Enjoying dinner, what else? :) Publishers: What are you doing while Amazon eats your lunch? http://t.co/V1yAWdXa

By: George

George — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:24:01 +0000

I disagree; Amazon will become another dreary tabloid book publisher ASAP, but quicker and selling worse books than the traditional publishers. I like the idea that someone, other than an industry retread–likely the first of a series, is selecting and editing and promoting indepedently of the retailer. I respect publishers, not accountants, and look forward to their choices for me. They have standards and they stick to them. They are “book people”. Think of what happened to TV. Three channels fought all the time and the result was pure gold; shows like Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, etc., that play 10X better than anything today. 100 channels or so
has given us ca-ca, or else recycled versions of…Twilight Zone and Eliot Ness, for example. The bland copies…So, I don’t want that to happen to the internet of internets: literature. We’ll end up deaf, dumb and blind.

By: How Make Money YouTube

How Make Money YouTube — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:54:00 +0000

Insightful post Mathew. I have to agree with Russell Grandinetii and his ‘Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity.’ comment. Seems he understands the world today, and those that adapt, and rise to the occassion are the winners.

By: Ian Lewis

Ian Lewis — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 04:50:33 +0000

Is this the end of the book retailing business too?

By: EvanJGregory

EvanJGregory — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 02:41:53 +0000

It shouldn’t just be the publishers complaining about Amazon. Authors should think twice about joining them in a race to the bottom vis-a-vis pricing. Dead-tree Publishers may be gigantic, old, and unwieldy, but thier primary interest is to sell books for a profit. The redounding benefits to the author are that if your book sells you catch a piece of that action. Amazon’s interests are not about books primarily, but as a one-stop-shopping destination generally. They use books as a loss leader to sell electronics, bicycles, groceries and hundreds of other products. That’s not to say that Amazon is an unmitigated evil in the book business, they serve a purpose, but let’s not get all starry-eyed about them. They aren’t benevolent futurists out to save publishing from itself.

Also there’s nothing wrong with the snails pace of legacy publishing, so long as their taking thier time to do it right (i.e. carefully editing, designing a marketing scheme that works, working with retailers to sell copies) and creating better products.

As for Penguin, the author is at fault in that scenario, it has nothing to do with Amazon. When one signs a contract to grant exclusive rights to a publisher there are non-compete provisions included (even Amazon publishing has them, I assure you) and they exist for completely legitimate reasons. If you paid umpteen million dollars for exclusive rights to a Steve. King novel and six months before release he put out a collection of short stories, that might cut your readership (and your sales) in half. That’s just what Kiana Davenport did. She should have consulted with her publisher first before self-pubbing. She’s not a victim here nor is her case exceptional in the annals of publishing, nor is it message Penguin is trying to send to others who might wish to self-pub.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:47:12 +0000

That’s a great point, Nicholas — I have no doubt that Amazon is looking at other publishing verticals as well.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:46:11 +0000

I agree that it puts them in a head-to-head battle with their suppliers, Brian — I’m just not sure that the traditional publishers have much of an option other than dealing with Amazon. It’s not like chain stores are doing all that well. Thanks for the comment.

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:44:48 +0000

Great points, Rick — there is no question that good publishers provide a number of services for authors, including editing (which Amanda Hocking said was one of the reasons she signed a traditional publishing deal, interestingly enough). But they are going to have to get used to the idea that they are no longer the only game in town. As for the low-quality content problem, that is something we will just have to deal with, I guess. Thanks for the comment.

By: Khan Manka Jr.

Khan Manka Jr. — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:44:41 +0000

One thing I do know from my own company – Gay Moroccan poetry is not going to save the publishing business…

http://mankabros.com/blogs/chairman/2011/10/12/gay-moroccan-poetry-is-not-going-to-save-our-publishing-business/