Like a genie unleashed from its bottle, the deep discontent accross the publishing world over Amazon's rising power is proving hard to subdue. Today, the New York Times has an exceptionally interesting editorial describing how Amazon plays rough in disputes with various (and in particular smaller) publishers.
Quote:
The struggle comes at a time that Amazon’s power as a bookseller is increasing, with sales growing online in an otherwise tepid global book market. Some publishers fear that with the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle electronic reader, the company will rise into a position to be able to demand more concessions.
“The buy button is their weapon of choice and that’s how they impose market discipline,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild, an American trade group that also briefly lost the buy icon, for titles sold from BackinPrint.com, a print-on-demand service for infrequently purchased works. “This is such a clear indication that once they have the clout they are willing to use it to the full extent that they can. It’s ugly with Amazon and will probably get uglier.”
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Full article:
Small Publishers Feel Power of Amazon’s ‘Buy’ Button
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Is Amazon Blackmailing POD Publishers?