|
Yes, JSWolf, there is something we can do. We insist on seeing ePub as the standard, keep selling/giving our books on a number of platforms using ePub, and also put them on Kindle. Amazon has already had to make concessions to the importance of ePub.
We can 'make hay while the sun shines' as somebody has put it, and make the most of Amazon's offers, without letting them control us.
As this year progresses there will be competitors stepping up their game and making it more viable to sell in their online bookshops. We will also want to sell on our own publisher and individual author websites. So I don't really see that Amazon can force us to go their limiting way exclusively.
2012 is going to be a very interesting year. In the UK I see Waterstones planning to move more into this market, also W H Smith, and as publishers we do get a good percentage of our online sales through them for print books, so that should also happen when they expand into ebooks.
I also think we could see some surprises, like the major supermarkets, moving into this arena. Tesco in the UK already had massive sales for ereaders over Christmas, and although these were Kindles I hope they would go for ePub books and readers too.
Amazon got a head start but it's up to all of us if we feel a more competitive market is what we want, what helps us most, and to make sure a standard such as ePub keeps enough of a position to force Amazon to play along. They already do to some extent and did have to work with ePub.
|