Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
1- The topic being the idea that DRM gives Amazon increasing power over publishers, the obvious answer is that DRM or not, there is nothing keeping publishers from getting into retailing to maintain an alternative channel to the walled garden ebookstores from Amazon, B&N, Apple, and Kobo.
2- Note that I didn't say *exclusive* retailing; Harlequin maintains their storefront in parallel to their sales via Kindle, Nook, etc.
3- Also, online retailing allows for aggregation through portals. (Tiger Direct, J&R, and dozens of other online retailers sell direct from *their* websites in parallel to sales thrugh Amazon, Buy.com, eBay, etc). If every single publisher did their own ebook retailing, they could sign up with any portal they chose to serve as a front end. And at that point the Agency Model wouldn't be just price-fixing but a real business model.
One added virtue of this approach is that indie bookstores, the oh-so-beloved dying breed, could set up retail portals to aggregate the publishers' content as they saw fit; an indie shop specializing in SF (like the long-gone Moonstone Bookcellars in Washington, DC) could front for Tor, Orbit, Baen, Smashwords, or whatever.)
The real problem is that, in the face of massive disruption of their business model, instead of looking at the necessary major revamp of their business model, publishers keep looking for simplistic low-effort magic bullets. The least they can do is the most the will do.
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You can already buy ebooks at the Agency 6. Three have their own stores and the others have direct links to the store of your choice. And all 6 have signed up with several portals. It's rather generous of them to give up 30% for customer convenience. What is missing from these aggregate sites are many of the indies. For whatever reason they choose not to participate. This is most notable for epubbers. Why does Amazon have the largest catalog? I like the idea of one site where most everything is available. Similar to the used paper book 3rd party sellers.
Mr Stross doesn't like Amazon but you have to admit they make it easy to find and purchase your ebook. With a few exceptions they have everything.