Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I hear that said, but is there any evidence to support it? Penguin had their best ever year in 2011, with an 8% increase in profit. Is that indicative of a business that's in decline? |
A book company that disdains libraries is in trouble.
The BPHs have a lot of inertia, and the transition to ebooks has created a greater interest in books in general. For a while, the names that dominated the industry for the last century will benefit from the new activity--rising tide, all boats, and all that. But unless they sort out how the publishing business' core principles have changed--mainly, that it is
no longer difficult to find an audience or distribute copies of a work--they'll be whittled away by smaller, nimbler companies, including a huge swarm of one-person author companies that have set their own terms for success.
Even if they don't get nailed by the lawsuit, if the settlement terms the other three publishers have agreed to are accepted by a judge, that'll put big dents in the profits of Penguin and Macmillan. Ebookstores will be free to discount the other books and their prices will look unreasonably high.