Quote:
Originally Posted by EowynCarter
What's with all the rant against amazon these day ?
I don't really get it.  |
You are safely isolated by the big pond, but the gist of it, is there is an astroturfing campaign by the manhattan publishing establishment to get the US government to *pre-emptively* punish Amazon for competive crimes they haven't committed, market power they don't have and haven't abused, and increasing distribution fees on indie books they haven't increased, on the say so of whiny authors, misinformed or malicious celebrities, and "eminences" that should know better but are too beholden to their agejts and publishers to resist dinging their own careers and reputations for the greater glory of Hachette and the Manhattan collusion gang.
And, here's, the key: despite 6-plus months of that steady crap, Amazon's reputation with consumers is higher than ever, indie titles are selling better than ever, Amazon's competitors have done nothing to improve their bookstores (although Apple has done a lot to improve their Mac-only ebook creation tool), and ebook adoption is steadily marching on. Which is their real crime.
Amazon caters to consumers, not self-important millionaire authors; they promote ebooks based on what they think will sell, not what they're paid to shill, and they are constantly looking for ways to sell more ebooks and make more money for them and the publishers.
So, while Hachette has been stonewalling (while they try to set up their own ebookstore) for ten months and counting, without negotiating, the CEO of CBS, parent company of S&S, bypassed his own underlings and sat down to talk with Bezos *before* his contract expired.
They talked things over, moneygrubber to moneygrubber, and reached an understanding. S&S sent a proposal to Amazon, Amazon offered changes, and in three weeks they had their new distribution contract--a form of DOJ-sanctioned Agency Lite that lets Amazon discount--months ahead of schedule.
So head for cover: the crapstorm is about to get really ugly now.
Six months of campaigning undercut with one deal, leaving the astroturfers out on a limb. The whining is about to notch up even higher because evil Amazon "bullied" weak and vulnerable S&S into signing a bad deal.
The fruitless campaign rolls on.