Amazon destroys the book industry again

[sabredog]

Well it just sucks to be you Waterstones.

Those who evolve survive, those who do not......say hello to the Dodo.....

[HansTWN]

Another "the dingo ate my baby" story. Well, if you don't watch the baby, or in this case don't have a working business plan... I am sure all of us book readers here are crying their eyes out. Just because something has worked for 100s of years doesn't mean it will work forever.

[plib]

Originally Posted by frahse

I see it time and again. "Daddy was here first. Why can't I just now enjoy it without having to bother to think? It should be mine forever."

I didn't realize the article was about lifetime+xx copyright?

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by SteveEisenberg

It still is ruthless when lowest cost means a temporary effort to put traditional booksellers out of business, so prices can be jacked way up later.

This *never* happens. It's a myth trotted out by people who are trying to find a downside to lower prices.

Walmart drove out many businesses and didn't jack up its prices. Big box stores (Borders, B&N, Toys "R" Us, Best Buy, etc.) drove out the competition and didn't jack up the prices. Amazon is no different.

[HappyMartin]

Amazon drive out traditional booksellers by lowering prices and once they are the only guys around they they raise prices and we all suffer. For about a week that is until someone sees that the high prices mean high profits and they then jump in and undercut Amazon.

I don't get it to be honest. Do we want free markets or do we want the Waterstones of the world taken care of? Guess which is more efficient.

[VaporPunk]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

As an American, I consider it my God given DUTY to give as little as possible to the government. So my sympathies lie with Amazon on this note.

Mine do not. Of course everybody wants to give as little as possible. What I don't want is multi-billion MNC's getting away with paying less then me...because they can hire a gazillion tax lawyers and bribe...er, I mean make huge campaign contributions to pols to enact favorable tax laws.

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

And the whole tone of the article has not one single positive thing that the publishing industry COULD DO to make things better for themselves. There is not a single bit of taking responsibility, it is all Amazons fault.

This I definitely agree with. I don't know a lot about the publishing industry but B&M stores need to work on what they can do better than e-commerce to draw in customers. FtF and local community interaction, for example.

[HarryT]

What the article strangely fails to mention is that Waterstones, by completely dominating the UK B&M book landscape, have themselves put countless small independent booksellers out of business.

[elcreative]

Please try to read the thread... the article was from Tim Waterstone (founder of Waterstones) who has absolutely nothing to do with Waterstones the book chain (and hasn't for years and years and...) which is now Russian owned and run by Daunt... Simples...

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Daithi

In related news, the head of the U.S. Postal Service has written an article about the effects of email on traditional postal delivery. This ruthless use of email is costing the government billions in lost revenue, and costing millions of postal workers their jobs.

In Sweden we no longer have post offices. We stil have a mail service, 98.8% is junk mail, so I could do without that as well. If you need to send something through the mail you go to the super market or gas station where there is a postal service counter.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

And the whole tone of the article has not one single positive thing that the publishing industry COULD DO to make things better for themselves. There is not a single bit of taking responsibility, it is all Amazons fault.

It is posts like that that get my dander up and make me want the publishers to FAIL, even though I don't really....

I will make, yet again, the same suggestion to publishers that I have made before. Simply stop selling to Amazon. The courts under the Republicans have made it clear in the United States that one can refuse to sell one's product to someone as long as the basis for the refusal is not grounded in one of the constitutionally prohibited acts, such as racial discrimination.

Just as Amazon has no obligation to sell all books by all authors and publishers, authors and publishers have no obligation to sell books to another publisher.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Boo-hoo; Amazon doesn't care for the welfare of its competitors!
Bad Amazon!

No, not bad Amazon; bad competitors. The competitors need to grow balls and fight back. Now that Amazon has a publishing arm and is in direct competition for authors with the Big 6, I think the Big 6 would be justified in not permitting Amazon to sell any of their books in any format.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

Walmart drove out many businesses and didn't jack up its prices. Big box stores (Borders, B&N, Toys "R" Us, Best Buy, etc.) drove out the competition and didn't jack up the prices. Amazon is no different.

Prices weren't jacked up because there was still a lot of competition. For example, Walmart competes against Amazon, Target, and Costco, to name 3 competitors. But if Barnes & Noble goes out of the book business like Borders, Amazon will have no national competitor.

[JeremyR]

Well, as the brilliant April 1st thread said, all the Big 6 would need to do to combat Amazon is sell their books direct (or through e-stores), DRM free so anyone can read them on any device.

Music finally moved to that model after years of crying and kicking and screaming from music publishers. Sure, their monopoly days are over, thanks to the internet, artists can deal directly with fans, avoiding publishers and music companies. But they still pull in a lot, probably far more than they deserve...

And there will always be competition in books. You don't have to read the books on the Bestsellers list. There are millions of people willing to sell you their books for cheap prices. Sure, a lot of it is awful, but the same can be said for what's on the NYT Bestseller's list.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by HappyMartin

Amazon drive out traditional booksellers by lowering prices and once they are the only guys around they they raise prices and we all suffer. For about a week that is until someone sees that the high prices mean high profits and they then jump in and undercut Amazon.

It would be almost impossible for a new startup to compete against Amazon. The cost to build a competitive business would be beyond nearly all businesses and entrepreneurs, largely because of the infrastructure that Amazon has built. Even if it could be done, it would take years to successfully build a competitive business. During that building period, Amazon would strike back and bankrupt the newly emerging company, return to its high prices while preparing a battle plan for the next startup that seeks to challenge it.

To blithely say that someone will come in and battle Amazon once Amazon has a monopoly is to ignore the realities of business creation. The only way any competitor would have a chance at survival would be if the Department of Justice brought Amazon to its knees as it did with Microsoft and IBM.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by rhadin

It would be almost impossible for a new startup to compete against Amazon. The cost to build a competitive business would be beyond nearly all businesses and entrepreneurs, largely because of the infrastructure that Amazon has built. Even if it could be done, it would take years to successfully build a competitive business. During that building period, Amazon would strike back and bankrupt the newly emerging company, return to its high prices while preparing a battle plan for the next startup that seeks to challenge it.

But it took Amazon many years of investment and loss-making to put that infrastructure in place before they started to show a profit. Should they be "brought to their knees" because they've succeeded in creating a successful business?