Stephen Covey ditches Simon & Schuster, gives exclusive rights to Amazon

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by dsvick

Is amazon also going to do the proofreading, editing, promoting, and all the other 1001 details that go into the production of a quality book. I'm not saying that they aren't or that they can't, it is is just a consideration that they need to address. It doesn't matter if they are the only ones that can sell a book if that book is crappy and no one wants it.

I hope the traditional publishers take this as a giant kick in the pants!!

Saw a comment on a blog somewhere that what is going on with Covey is "disintermediation." That is, elimination of the middleman. Not entirely true, though - it's just that two middlemen, the publisher & the retailer, have merged into one. The next "experiment" by Covey might be to directly distribute a book from his own web site.

As for the proofing and editing, there's no reason in the world that a private individual can't set himself up in business to proof & edit works for authors. Nor is there any reason that agents can't move into the publicity business. In other words, as part of disintermediation, the functions previously performed by a middleman can be contracted out.

Perhaps publishers will rethink their role, and come to the conclusion that they are no longer in the business of buying and selling rights to books, but are still in the business of polishing & publicizing, maybe on a commission basis.

Very interesting times. Within the context of ebooks, being a consumer is going to be more complicated. But within the context of books, perhaps what is going on is an expansion of opportunities to read. From my perspective, what's exciting is that the universe of available out of copyright books has greatly expanded, as a practical matter. The question of exactly how new books are being made available is a side issue, AFAICS.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by borax99

THIS IS BAD NEWS FOR THOSE AUTHORS - THEY ARE LIMITING THEIR POTENTIAL READERSHIP BY GOING WITH A SINGLE SELLER, HOWEVER LARGE. I, FOR ONE, REFUSE TO PARTICIPATE IN KINDLE NONSENSE - I use Sony and eReader, may add an eSlick.

Yeah, that was my thought at first, too.

But this is just a first step in a realignment of the relationships between author, publisher and reseller. I can imagine, for instance, a situation where Amazon gets a 1 year exclusive ("hardback") and then the author can resell rights to Borders/Sony, B&N etc ("paperback.")

And don't forget that non-Kindle owners do have access to Kindle books, just not on a dedicated reader. So if you reelly reelly want to read a Covey book, you can get it on iPhone, iPod, or your computer. Or, buy the pbook...

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by captobie

I didn't know anyone still read Covey's books.

Everyone where I work was sent to one of Covey's Seven Habits seminars, which is where I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The main thing I remember from the book is how he was constantly quoting famous people to back up what he had written--but there was not a single source given for any of the quotes he used. When I mentioned this to the fellow who was leading the seminar, he said that it wasn't standard practice to do that in books. Well, maybe in books he gave credence to, but as far as I'm concerned, unsourced quotes are no better than gossip. An endless number of books have been published that make up quotes by famous people out of whole cloth to bolster their arguments, and the powers-that-be know how many "Quotation" Internet sites contain bogus and false attributions. If you can't give me chapter and verse, then don't bother to write it.

If there's one thing that really gets under my skin, it's sloppy research!

[Donnageddon]

Fortunately I have less than zero interest in Covey's books. But from a general standpoint, I hate these "exclusive" ebook publishing ideas, and I would think authors would understand that they are cutting themselves off from a significant portion of their potential readership with assigning exclusive ebook rights to the likes of such a closed system as Amazon.

It makes little sense to put up a fence between you and your readers.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

They're counting on reader reviews to sort out the good books and encourage other readers to buy them; they don't need to invest in an editorial staff to pre-identify those books.

It's a horrifically inefficient process... but the wasted time & effort is all on the buyer's end.

I agree with your observation of the facts, but I'm not sure about the conclusion. It might be that buyers, as a group, do a better job of sorting the wheat from the chaff, and there are certainly a lot of people who seem to relish the opportunity to do so. Given that you can get a sample of every ebook on Amazon, and the existence of a tagging system, I could see that we buyers could agree on a tag system separating the poorly edited/formatted from the others.

I just bought The Polish Officer (Alan Furst) on the Sony Store. The formatting is screwed up, so that only italicized fonts can be zoomed. The regular fonts stay on S. I have to move to landscape mode to make it readable. I left a comment as a warning to other buyers, but wouldn't it be great if, say, Inkmesh could pick up tags like BF (Bad Format.)

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I just bought The Polish Officer (Alan Furst) on the Sony Store. The formatting is screwed up, so that only italicized fonts can be zoomed. The regular fonts stay on S. I have to move to landscape mode to make it readable. I left a comment as a warning to other buyers, but wouldn't it be great if, say, Inkmesh could pick up tags like BF (Bad Format.)

You should be able to return it--if I bought a book in a store, took it home, and discovered everything after the first couple of pages was in an unreadable font, or had random ink-spills on the paper, I'd be able to return it.

Aside from that--if ebook pricing/review sites could have user-generated tags (and nobody's stopping anyone from setting up a delicious account for just that purpose), there's still the problem of accountability.

For you, BF means most of the fonts don't work zoomed. (I've seen that; it's awful.) For some, BF means 1/2" indents on the right & left. For others, BF means not-right-justified, because they're not aware that all epubs are going to have ragged right edges on a Sony. Or they hate that Sony's epub reader doesn't support justification, and they protest it by tagging all the books BF.

It's not un-doable, or worthless, to have reader-created tags & reviews, but it's not up to the standards of traditional editors, either. There's a lot of noise mixed in with the signal.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Harmon

I agree with your observation of the facts, but I'm not sure about the conclusion. It might be that buyers, as a group, do a better job of sorting the wheat from the chaff, and there are certainly a lot of people who seem to relish the opportunity to do so. Given that you can get a sample of every ebook on Amazon, and the existence of a tagging system, I could see that we buyers could agree on a tag system separating the poorly edited/formatted from the others.

An editor influence the content also. I would be pretty annoyed if I bought a book that had not gone through some filtering/editorial process. And I do not believe that comments from readers will enhance the quality of the book. It will be a nightmare having different versions of books.

[Elfwreck]

Originally Posted by tompe

And I do not believe that comments from readers will enhance the quality of the book.

It won't--it'll just let you know which ones are worth getting even though they haven't been through an editor. If you can trust the comments, that is.

[Kali Yuga]

http://www.amazon.com/Leviathan-eboo...0919580&sr=1-1



I don't think Amazon wants to get all that deeper into publishing -- just enough to scare the bejeezus out of the publishers. It may also be an invitation to authors that if ebook rights on backlist titles do get cleared up in their favor, that Amazon may be willing to work with them on publishing those titles.

It is worth noting, by the way, as much as you despise publishers, working with them generally reduces the numbers of exclusives whose audience is restricted via vendor lock-ins.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

If you can trust the comments, that is.

That's the key. Personally, I have little faith in the comments. None of the commenters are "known" by me. I'd hate to buy a book rated 5 stars by 30 people all of whom, unbeknownst to me, think a book of tweets is high lit.

[DawnFalcon]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I think it's an interesting development - but Amazon exclusives always carry that undercurrent"

Undercurrent? It's a direct statement.

Oh and a friend who got Kindle for PC and set America as his region? Now has an email about confirming his identity as an American or they'll deregister it, and his purchases.

[TGNY]

eBooks will rise in popularity but real books are not going anywhere. I don't think Publishers are all that afraid of amazon.

The dust hasn't settled yet but I have a feeling that when it does Amazon will be forced to share the market with everyone else. Covey doesnt really matter, barely a blip on the radar and someone like Rowling would lose too much to give Amazon exclusivity.

Kindle owners all sound the same to me, they are pro-monoply

[JSWolf]

Basically, this means that I will never ever purchase Stephen Covey's books nore recommend anyone does so. having exclusive eBooks right to one shop that's locked like Amazon is is bad for eBooks over all. I'm hoping his experiment tanks big time. What he is doing is tell me that because I don't have a Kindle, I cannot purchase his eBooks. All I can say is screw you Stephen Covey.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by =X=

Well Amazon is getting better by at least making it possible for most folks to buy the books. In the past one HAD to own a kindle.
Books have always had exclusive deals, eBooks exclusive deals just effect consumers more because of DRM.


Well I think this is a battle won but the war is far from over. The publishers still have a lot of control over the new content, remember this is just a deal over the older books.

If the publishers adjust and react they have a chance because they hold the biggest value, contracts with authors.

So why do I agree with you that Amazon has won... because of the last two paragraphs. Where Amazon criticizes S&S for their resistance to accept eBooks and S&S replies by denying it. Their head is dug in a hole and they refuse to see the light.



Personally I'm expecting Amazon to sign an exclusive deal with J.K. Rowling. My true feeling about this woman is she does not so much hate eBooks but is a smart businesswoman and is holding off to get as much of a payout as possible.

=X=

Any author who signs and exclusive contract like that for their eBooks deserve to get them pirated all to hell and back.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

I don't like exclusivity, but I have no problem with authors maximizing income and at present any backlist title published as a ebook is a net win for everyone. So on balance, this is good thing.

How is this a good thing for the average person who will not be able to read eBooks s/he wants to read because the eBooks are locked into Amazon and they don't have a Kindle? Sure you can get Kindle for PC, but that does nothing for the people who have a reader that doesn't happen to be from Amazon. I don't have a Kindle and I don't buy eBooks from Amazon. Lots of people don't have a Kindle. Going exclusive to Amazon is just bad news. And it is not good eBooks. Amazon is bad for business.