Quote:
Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom
. . . publishers who put a throttle on what books come to market . . .
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The best argument for publishers putting a throttle on what books come to market was divested by Random House earlier this month. See:
Penguin Random exits self-publishing
and
While Author Solutions will likely continue to run as a self-publishing business, it seems traditional publishing companies have largely decided to steer clear of Amazon in this area.
The reason Author Solutions throttles what books come to market is that they ask authors to put up their own money before titles are published.
Rather than putting a throttle on books coming to market, the type of publisher I value is buying book proposals, improving manuscripts, and bringing them to market, at the publisher's expense.
Here's the excellent, publisher-nurtured, edited, and brought to market, new release I am now reading:
http://www.amazon.com/City-Thorns-Wo...city+of+thorns
As for the OP situation, I hope they'll release a transcript of next Wednesday's event. Maybe that will change my opinion. But, right now, my feeling is that the publishers of the books I value have regained control of their retail product prices. Amazon is selling their products at those prices and without artificial delays. All good to me. Unless I am missing something, the publishers have, for now, won their battle with Amazon, preserving the type of free expression nurtured by publishers willing to take on some of the risk that a title, such as in my last link, won't sell enough to recoup expenses. Perhaps I am missing something. But for now, I'm backing off the Amazon-bashing, albeit for reasons different from other friends-of-Amazon on the thread.