Quote:
Originally Posted by morriss003
This is true, but I can't help noting that, since Amazon is also a middleman, a well known author might, at some point, offer up a manuscript for bid to the web company who will take the lowest cut. In the future, we might see Amazon, Google, Facebook and others having to bid for the right to be the middleman.
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But it's not a matter of taking the lowest cut at all; it's also a matter of providing the widest distribution. If facebook offers you slightly more per book, but Amazon can sell 10x as many books, Amazon is who you're going to choose.
Which points out, again, that it's *hard* to do what Amazon does. Calling them a "middleman" doesn't make what Amazon does easy. And FB or Google *can't* do what Amazon does. They're not good enough and they don't have the right skills. I mean, look at Apple - a wildly successful company by most metrics but their e-book sales are being crushed by Amazon. Because Amazon is doing something really hard that other companies can't do.
I mean, as discussed upthread - look at the difficulty that Pottermore has had with its 7 books. (I know it does more, but still).