Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
And that's why authors have (or should have) agents who are trustworthy.
As far as your earlier comment about it being what you expect from big 5 publishers but not Amazon/Audible, I think it's very typical of Amazon. Amazon likes to play hardball with their suppliers and authors are suppliers to Amazon. Walmart was famous for that sort of dealing with their suppliers and Bezos uses Walmart as his model. Anyone who thinks that there is a difference in behavior between Amazon and any of the big 5 publishers (or frankly, most large corporations) is, IMPO, engaged in wishful thinking. Most large corporations will do what they think they can get away with as long as they think it helps their bottom line.
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You mean of course literature majors with no legal or business qualifications and a built-in conflict of interest should break the law by giving their poor clients legal advice on contracts. Agents are on the way out, with very good reason. And trustworthy agents is almost an oxymoron.
Amazon is certainly no Saint. One way in which it has distinguished itself in the past is by taking a longer term view and a wider one. And a Big 5 publishing contract is vastly more onerous than an Apub one, let alone KDP terms. Amazon is not giving authors more favourable terms out of the goodness of its heart. It is doing it because it is good business. What Audible has done here is not. Nor are the Big 5's contracts including the current rights grab mentality.