Quote:
Originally Posted by jscarbo
It's no secret that most of them haven't adjusted very well to the ebook revolution and are still struggling with how to market and promote ebooks without relying entirely on third party vendors such as Amazon.
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Have you seen this?
http://stratechery.com/2014/publishers-smiling-curve/
GigaOM summarized it as "Value in the media industry is moving to the edges and publishers are in the middle".
https://gigaom.com/2014/10/29/value-...in-the-middle/
If we look at the production chain for books, from author to reader, we find essentially the same "smiley curve". The highest value-add comes from the author on the upper left and from the retailers on the upper right.
Over the past few decades, the traditional distribution chain has consolidated into two major distributors and a handful of major retailers which likewise consolidated retail power. (This was was the publishers' doing, btw.)
And, more recently, a second distribution chain has emerged that runs parallel and independent to the traditional chain. In fact, a whole raft of new chains is emerging, all outside the control of the traditional publishers.
As the articles point out, retailers control the reader relationship and authors (with rare exceptions) control the brand and the supply of product. In the age of "always-in-print" the value of post-publishing services is increasing. With the emergence of the new distribution channels and the consolidation (and decline) of the traditional channels, the value of the services provided by the middlemen is declining.
The curve is flattening at the center and rising at the edges. Tradpub has bigger problems on their hands than how to split the take at one retailer. And the more time and effort they waste on that, the bigger their problems will get.