Amazon.com to Acquire Goodreads

[meeera]

Originally Posted by idraw22

Amazon owns Library Things too!? I had no idea... maybe theyre trying to corner the ebook stock market thingy!

Amazon does not own LibraryThing. It owns a minority, non-controlling share, via AbeBooks.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Microsoft remained, at one point they must have owned 90 % of all OSes out there. If that doesn't fit the definition of a monopoly...

As I understand it, under US and EU law, having a monopoly isn't illegal. Abusing monopoly power to harm consumers is illegal.

Microsoft were found guilty of abusing their monopoly position, and had to pay fines, modify the way certain things were done, etc (and last month they were fined 561m euros for failing to fulfill their obligations under the EU settlement).

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by avantman42

As I understand it, under US and EU law, having a monopoly isn't illegal. Abusing monopoly power to harm consumers is illegal.

Microsoft were found guilty of abusing their monopoly position, and had to pay fines, modify the way certain things were done, etc (and last month they were fined 561m euros for failing to fulfill their obligations under the EU settlement).

I believe the reference to Antitrust Laws refers to the ability to break up monopolies like Standard Oil or AT&T, but perhaps this was a consequence of abuses rather than size, IANAL.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by auntykatkat

My issue was the monopoly that is being formed. When they are the only one who publishes, reviews, and sells we will have a big problem. I seem to remember my history about other monopolies that took all the money and stopped competition. Amazon may do things well, but in the end I see us all losing if it continues to grow unchecked.

Exactly.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I believe the reference to Antitrust Laws refers to the ability to break up monopolies like Standard Oil or AT&T, but perhaps this was a consequence of abuses rather than size, IANAL.

Standard Oil created a vertical monopoly from Wellhead to Gas Tank (by itself perfecty legal), squeezed out smaller competitors, and *then* raised prices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standar..._United_States

...the Court concluded that the term "restraint of trade" had come to refer to a contract that resulted in "monopoly or its consequences." The Court identified three such consequences: higher prices, reduced output, and reduced quality.

The Court concluded that a contract offended the Sherman Act only if the contract restrained trade "unduly"—that is, if the contract resulted in one of the three consequences of monopoly that the Court identified. A broader meaning, the Court suggested, would ban normal and usual contracts, and would thus infringe liberty of contract.

The issue is the harm to consumers, not to competitors.
Unless it actually hurts consumers, competitors can go hang; evolve or die.
(Nope, theoretical future harm does not apply; only past and present harm.)

[DrDln]

How will it be different from Kindle boards? I think it will be something similar...????

[Breid]

Noooo I hate Amazon. I really wish they would stop trying to take over the entire book world. Then I might like them a bit more and start buying from them again.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jamadams

I'm intrigued to know why you think that Amazon is bad for readers. My view would be completely the opposite.

Amazon is bad for competition.

[fjtorres]

Here's another reason why Amazon (might have) bought Goodreads:
http://www.teleread.com/amazon/one-m...hor-discovery/

I think another reason Amazon bought Goodreads was to find another source of good authors to woo. Look at what they say on the AmazonCrossing site:

Similar to AmazonEncore, Amazon.com’s first publishing imprint, AmazonCrossing uses customer feedback and other data from Amazon sites to identify exceptional works that deserve a wider, global audience.
Looks to me like Amazon just invested in another site from which to mine data about who’s good and who’s not.

If you are a successful self-published author interested in being discovered by Amazon, I’d suggest you create/brush up your Goodreads page and presence.

[CWatkinsNash]

If you are a successful self-published author interested in being discovered by Amazon, I’d suggest you create/brush up your Goodreads page and presence.

At least a portion of the authors that read that will skip over the "successful self-pubished author" part and translate it to:

"Go nuts on Goodreads and Amazon might publish you on one of their imprints!"

Oy.

They will "increase their presence", GR readers will respond negatively, STGRB will make a big deal of that, and it will be Bullygate all over again.

I really, really hope I'm wrong but... Alas, we shall see.

There are many authors I interact with and love dearly, but their unrestrained and less professional brethren make me seriously annoyed.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

At least a portion of the authors that read that will skip over the "successful self-pubished author" part and translate it to:

"Go nuts on Goodreads and Amazon might publish you on one of their imprints!"

Oy.

They will "increase their presence", GR readers will respond negatively, STGRB will make a big deal of that, and it will be Bullygate all over again.

I really, really hope I'm wrong but... Alas, we shall see.

There are many authors I interact with and love dearly, but their unrestrained and less professional brethren make me seriously annoyed.

One of the benefits to GR is that the groups are moderated. Most authors don't get to go nuts for long before being blocked from groups (assuming the mods are paying attention.) Most of the groups have a place for authors to post and when they post outside of them, they get canned.

But they do have their sagas. Shrug. No way around that.

I'm not so sure that Amazon needs any additional data to "mine" for 'successful' writers. They have access to almost all the sales data they need. There are very few authors who sell more books on another retailer...unless they just use success as "number of reviews." Yeah, that could be bad...

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by DrDln

How will it be different from Kindle boards? I think it will be something similar...????

Exactly.

[DrDln]

Amazon is good for authors and readers to publish and sell books at competitive price..

[kyteflyer]

Not hopeful that Goodreads will still exist in a year or two. I remember the glowing press when they bought Stanza. They don't want any competition. At all.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

Not hopeful that Goodreads will still exist in a year or two. I remember the glowing press when they bought Stanza. They don't want any competition. At all.

While I'm in agreement that they don't want any competition, I don't see how it applies here. Goodreads doesn't sell books. They provide a feature that allows users to search their favorite places (not just stores, but also libraries and archives) for books, but it's not a primary feature of the site. (It's an awkward feature anyway, which can be tricky to use, so I can't be the only one who often finds it easier to just open up a new tab and search for the book myself.)

The only way Goodreads will disappear is if Goodreads / Amazon pulls some sort of boneheaded move that causes everyone to leave. I'm not ruling that out, mind you; as I stated previously, I'm taking a wait and see approach. But I don't believe Amazon bought it to kill it like they've done with others. They now have access to the data of 13 million readers - I don't see them tossing that in the trash on purpose.