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Originally Posted by abookreader
Well, I'd say publishers excel at their relationships with some authors. The big names who get tons of attention and marketing and other perks. John Grisham probably isn't looking to leave Random House and Hatchette has James Patterson under lock and key.
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Big name is the same as "what most folks are looking for". It's the combination of ability to write for the mass market and the ability to market for the mass market. If you don't have the NYT BestSellers on your website, you are going to be hurting for attention.
Quote:
Originally Posted by abookreader
But on the other hand, the relationship with authors is only 1/2 of the battle. What Amazon (and Barnes and Kobo and all the others) provide is customers. Right now the publishers are beyond terrible at establishing and nurturing a relationship with customers. If they want to consume the retailer role in the food chain, they are going to have to first get out one of their own dictionaries and look up the meaning of "Customer Service."
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The customers for the publishers have never been the reader. WalMart, Barnes and Noble -- these are the traditional customers for publishers. What the publishers have done that seems "customer unfriendly" have largely been because the people we think are the customers are not actually the customers.
I think it will be a whole lot easier for Big6.com to offer what Amazon does to the customer than it will be for Amazon to replace the relationships the publishers have with the most desired authors.
It will be a battle. Right now, Amazon is having it's cake and eating it too.
Lee