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Originally Posted by fjtorres
The job of a publisher is supposed to be bringing readers and authors together.
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With this I agree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
When you get down to basics only those two are absolutely essential to the reading experience: authors to create, readers to consume.
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This is true only so far as it goes. That middle level of making the connection between the author and consumer is absolutely essential as well. What "entity" form it takes may be up for grabs, but its role cannot be so lightly dismissed. Consumers can only buy what they find; authors can only sell what consumers can find.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
And in that one global market, Amazon UK can *profitably* ship print books to Australia, eat the shipping cost, and still undercut the local retailer.
That is not an opinion, that is a fact, people.
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Sorry, but that is opinion. No facts have been presented that show that Amazon UK
- profitably sells pbooks
- or that the profit margin is such that it will still make a profit after shipping to New Zealand
Amazon is well known to be willing to take deep losses to gain market share. The question that no one knowledgeably addresses is this: Once the only bookseller left standing in a market is Amazon, what will happen to book prices?
The normal expectation is that they will rise. The standard response is that someone else will come in and undercut them. The first, I think, is true and likely to happen. The second is not necessarily true and unlikely to happen. If Amazon raised its prices across the board 10%, that margin would a significant increase in Amazon profitability but unlikely to be enough to enable a competitor to rise.
And don't forget that what rises can also fall. That is, Amazon could sit back months or years collecting the higher price/margin and fattening profits and then when it looks like a serious competitor is on the rise, simply revert to its former methods.
Once entrenched, it is very difficult to unseat a monopolist.