Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
I think we'll see a lot of fluidity between authoring, publishing, and bookselling in the next two decades. AMAZON looks like it wants to be a vertically integrated company purveying written content directly from the author to the consumer. It probably won't be the last.
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No reason not to.
The barriers to entry are down, there are no more gatekeepers, and with publishers and agents on the verge of all-out war all bets are off. The only roles that are absolutely necessary in the new era are those of writer and reader. Everybody else has to justify their existence on a day-by-day basis. Everybody else had better by prepared to take on as much of the value add in between or be prepared to be bypassed. Not much fun ahead for those wedded to the old ways but change is no longer just coming, it is *here*.
Retailers and agents getting into publishing and publishers getting into retailing are the least of the system shocks to the "ancien regime" we'll see before the dust settle.
The big one is the end of full-credit returns.
That one is a ticking timebomb.
I'm thinking...two-three years. Four max.
One thing, though, Amazon isn't just a vertically integrated company; they are an outright conglomerate (ala GE) but focused on retailing instead of manufacturing. They sell dry goods like books and CDs, electronics and clothing, food and drugs; but also services like online hosting and storage, and even personal services. And they don't limit themselves to consumer sales, as the bulk of their services operations are (so far) corporate-focused.
If we look at their publishing ventures as a *service* they sell to authors and agents then their publishing subsidiary is pretty much a natural extension of their ebook conversion and marketting services. Essentially, they are looking to sell themselves to the authors, instead of expecting the authors to sell themselves to Amazon. A slightly different approach from that of the BPHs.