“We’re in Amazon’s Sights and They’re Going to Kill Us”

[franYo]

Not sure if this has been discussed yet. It's a very interesting article about the future of traditional publishing based on the views of an industry insider.

http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/17/con...ng-to-kill-us/

In short, he thinks Amazon is going to destroy them all.

We can’t pay $1 million for books anymore. Amazon could probably afford to lose $20 million/year in their publishing arm just to put the other publishers out of business. I think that’s what they’re trying to do–throw money around in an industry that doesn’t have any, until Amazon becomes not only the only place where you buy books, but the only place that publishes books, too.

[ficbot]

Great article, thanks for posting. Personally, I find it hard to drum up much sympathy for big pub. They saw what happened with the music industry and foolishly perceived themselves immune from the same forces, so they failed to innovate. It's their own fault.

[DiapDealer]

When you can see a slow-moving freight train coming at you from miles distant, perhaps you should come up with a plan that includes contingencies other than sitting down in the middle of the tracks and weeping.

[nookkatz]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

When you can see a slow-moving freight train coming at you from miles distant, perhaps you should come up with a plan that includes contingencies other than sitting down in the middle of the tracks and weeping.

+1

Very well said.

[fjtorres]

To me, the signature quote is at the top:

The rest is a lazy publishing industry that does far too little of the work that got them here: Discovering new authors and giving them a shot. Instead, they go for the lazy lay-up: Overpaying on celebrity memoirs and pop culture phenomenons with a built in audience.

While the Big Publishers whine about Amazon and look for ways to rip-off ebook readers, what is really killing them is their own laziness. At a time when the market is being flooded with long-lived, cheap quality from the backlist, the Big Publishers are tying their fates to short-lived, expensive dreck. They're forgetting that the health of their business depends finding content. not making big-budget deals.

I see this as simple payback; the revenge of the slush pile and the backlist, both deprecated, both eating away at the BPH market share.

Amazon is just a distraction, the real threat is coming from Open Road and the other new publishers.

[RainingLemur]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

When you can see a slow-moving freight train coming at you from miles distant, perhaps you should come up with a plan that includes contingencies other than sitting down in the middle of the tracks and weeping.

I prefer to stare it down, play a little game of chicken with that freight train in hopes that it hops the track before I do. Not that I expect to win, of course.

Spoiler:

(Well said. Very well said.)

[CJJ]

Instead of shedding crocodile tears the publishing industry could garner more sympathy if they once again supported a reading culture.
Not screwing local public libraries would be a good place to start.

[ucfgrad93]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

When you can see a slow-moving freight train coming at you from miles distant, perhaps you should come up with a plan that includes contingencies other than sitting down in the middle of the tracks and weeping.

Post. Of. The. Day.

/thread.

[mr ploppy]

Now I know what a Snooki is

It isn't really a £1million advance that writers want from publishers, it's a better royalty than the 15% they are getting now and to not be treated like a commodity to milk and then dispose of. That's what Amazon is attracting them with, but they don't publicise what their royalty rates are so that they can negotiate different rates with different writers. Publishers need to realise that they are the junior partner, once they do that everything else will fall into place.

[crich70]

Haven't read the article yet but it sounds more like a conspiracy theory to me. Sure publishing will probably change now that we are firmly in the digital age where you can download a book to your reader rather than having to buy a pbook every time you want something new to read, but in order to control all publishing I would think they'd have to literally control the whole internet. A rather tall order I would think.

[silverraven]

I prefer to stare it down, play a little game of chicken with that freight train in hopes that it hops the track before I do. Not that I expect to win, of course.

Did the song "I Play Chicken With The Train" by Cowboy Troy come to anyone else's mind??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUPK9z59yUc&ob=av2e
S

[cjr72]

We've seen this movie before in other industries, most recently Kodak in the face of digital photography. When there's technological upheaval in an industry the established players would rather dig in their heels and close their eyes to reality (and try to get laws passed to stop what's inevitable). When it comes to adapting, very few established players are willing to gore their own ox in time before new companies that understand the new landscape do it for them.

[ProfCrash]

I love how they are now saying that Amazon drove out the Independent bookstores and not Barnes and Nobles and Borders. Then toss in how the email writer poopoos finding new authors and bemoans the cost of celebrity authors and books and you have an industry that has no clue what the hell it is doing.

How about copy what Amazon is doing? Offer a better royalty without the author being restricted to one bookstore. It sure sounds like the advance payments are dropping any way. Offer a smaller advance and 50% royalty. Heck, aim for a 40% royalty, you one up Amazon and make the deal better for the author.

How about not pissing people off by pulling library e-books? How about getting more of the backlog digitized so that people can read entire series on their e-readers? How about pulling your head out of the freaking sand and facing the new, scary world head on. Stop whining and start competing.

Your old way of doing things is not working. Stop complaining and try something else.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

How about getting more of the backlog digitized so that people can read entire series on their e-readers? How about pulling your head out of the freaking sand and facing the new, scary world head on. Stop whining and start competing.

Your old way of doing things is not working. Stop complaining and try something else.

This.

Publishers are sitting on a goldmine of backlist titles, yet their fear of ebooks is preventing them from mining the gold. In contrast, Amazon is leveraging ebooks to drive their sales and authors are embracing the opportunities Amazon is offering them.

[ProfCrash]

I have a feeling that there will be new e-book Publishers that emerge. Some smart person will look at the Independent Authors that are doing well will realize that there is money to be made by working with those Authors. Providing editing and marketing to up and coming Independent Authors will help produce better books and people will start to recognize that there is something new out there to sort buy. It will take time but someone is going to start to organize the Independents that they see promise in and a new Publishing House will be formed.

Heck, maybe part of the deal is that if you publish so many e-books we will look at printing the book and selling the hardback or paperback for you.

Set a high royalty, promise that the work remain DRM free, offer future incentives and off we go. If the main stream Publishers are not doing it then some one will fill the gap. Romance has a few of these already that are doing ok if not well. Why not Science Fiction or Mystery?