[issybird]

Originally Posted by Quoth

And there is Amazon. Who will destroy everyone else. Their Audiobook system Audible is now a lending library that pays nothing to Authors. Did any regulators stop Amazon buying MobiPocket, various publishers, the two companies that they merged to make CreateSpace, IMDB, Goodreads, Abe Books, Book Depositary, an alternate eink display rights, KDP Select, Kindle Unlimited and Prime which are anticompetitive and cheat content providers?

The takeover / merger should go ahead.

The resulting outfit needs to wakeup!

• Cut out wholesalers, supply bookshops direct.
• Sell eBooks direct from their own website.
• Abandon DRM on ebooks.
• Use POD so NOTHING goes out of print.
• Have their own Audiobooks, sales and streaming from own site.
• Offer cassettes as well as Digital Audiobooks.
• Offer same price to bookshops as supermarkets.
• Keep different sizes in print via POD after print run.
• Launch some titles as POD and ebook only if unsure.
• Choose content on merit, not 3rd party snob literature reviewers or by some strange diversity criteria.
• Rely less on Agents.

A few random comments:

• The absolute last thing I want as a customer is to have to visit each publisher’s website to download content. I’ll take direct download to a single device or app from a storefront that sells all publishers, thank you very much.
  
• I have no issue with DRM. I figure it works to an extent, as in better than nothing.
  
• Authors are paid for audio rights. That it’s not necessarily a royalty system doesn’t equal theft.
  
• Cassettes? Seriously?
  
• Books are selected on the basis of expected profitability. The serious issue resulting from consolidation is that publishers are increasingly unwilling to subsidize quality or prestige books from the profits on bestsellers.
  
• Agents are not the big evil. Anecdote: I once read the slushpile at Random House for a few weeks. Taking that in-house is not going to improve matters.