Quote:
Originally Posted by leebase
Never the issue...it was THE issue, the first mover, the shot heard 'round the world.
Amazon wanted to use the publisher's own product against them. Justifying the purchase of Amazon's $400 reader by offering below wholesale prices on the entire NYT's best seller list.
Amazon was devaluing the first run Hardback, the lifeblood of the publishers.
In addition, Amazon was killing the competition who couldn’t afford a sustained campaign to lose money selling books.
And Amazon was making ebook selling a market that new entrants would stear away from.
Before Apple entered the scene, the Publishers were already fighting Amazon...some of them went so far as to pull all their books from Amazon. But it was too late, Amazon had already become the 900lb gorilla in book sales.
Amazon has been and continues to be THE anti-competitive force in the book industry.
But, folks here hate the publishers so much, they are blind to Amazon. And yet...before too long, Amazon will be the only place to get ebooks...and the only publisher OF books
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There are publisher haters, there are Google haters, there are Amazon haters, there are Apple haters, Microsoft haters. I am not any of these. I give them all money (Google, not so much - I don’t use Google search, but still use gmail, for what it is worth to them). None of them are perfect, they all make mistakes. I have preferences, but these are subject to review and change.
Except for relatively small, poorly managed businesses like Nook, we are not going to see any major ebook retailers leaving the business (Amazon, Apple, Google, Kobo, mmm-Microsoft is not a major ebook retailer, but yup, even they launched a bookstore not that long ago after terminating their investment in Nook). These businesses are all part of huge companies with the scale it takes to have a sustainable and profitable business selling them everywhere in the world. It has been more than four years since the last dustup between a publisher and Amazon (Hachette, 2014).
Unlike the situation with music, most people still prefer analog books, and apparently will for the foreseeable future. It’s not clear that Amazon publishing ventures are anything more than another thing they are trying out and will eventually abandon (Kindle Unlimited seems sustainable, but it is actually quite limited). KDP is a vast improvement over previous options for self-publishing, as my writer wife can attest to, and Wattpad is an alternative route that has had some success in launching writing careers.
So I am not very worried about the future of publishing, or that Amazon will destroy what is best about it.
I’ve worked for several large tech companies, and ever since the Microsoft browser troubles, they have all had mandatory, regular training to inform employees what anti-competitive practices are (and now, also what harassment is) and that these are wholly unacceptable practices and behaviors. Amazon is not going to repeat Microsoft’s mistakes.
If you’re interested, this is a good rundown of ‘Amazon Controversies’:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaz..._controversies
The anti-competitive and monopolistic section as it relates to books includes only the short battle with MacMillan in 2010 with the launch of the iPad (Amazon capitulated within days), the 2014 thing with Hachette, complaints about BookSurge policy changes (no litigation ensued), and a period of contention with Canada’s import regulations as it related to ‘foreign’ booksellers (resolved).
Sorry this is OT - I think I’ve said all I want to about this, and I am sure it is more than enough.