Interesting
article about Amazon's move into the publishing business. They've actually been in the publishing business for years now, but it appears that lately they have been ramping up their efforts and starting to make the move to front-list titles instead of mid-list and back-list titles. According to the article they've begun recruiting some major players in the publishing industry, and the article gives the impression we may soon be looking at the Big Seven instead of the Big Six.
It'll be interesting to see how this plays out (Amazon will need some big name authors). Not too long ago Amazon went to war with one of the smaller big six publishers and eventually Amazon caved and was forced to accept the "agency" pricing model for ebooks. If the publishers feel they are at a disadvantage competing against Amazon as a publisher then it is possible they could drop Amazon as a distributor. Or, maybe Amazon is too big to drop. Or, maybe Amazon is too big to move into publishing without triggering anti-trust investigations. Until things start to play out who knows. However, I look forward to watching as things unfold.