What Would Happen if Amazon Ruled Publishing?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/what-would-happen-if-amazon-ruled-publishing/246854/#.Tp2Tm7PKn4Y.hackernews

by slaterhearst • 15 years ago

20 11 15 years ago

theatlantic.com

mechanical_fish• 15 years ago

If Amazon consolidates its power in the publishing industry, what would become of a book criticizing Amazon?

It would be published as a simple PDF or mobile-friendly ebook format on the open web. Or, you know, just blogged.

Or sold as an app on iOS and Android.

Or sold by Pragmatic Publishers, or O'Reilly, or any of the other similar small publishers that will soon be all over the landscape, particularly in the all-electronic publishing era.

Or sold by Barnes and Noble. Does anybody remember Barnes and Noble?

Who knows, maybe Facebook or Google will start an e-publishing arm. Wouldn't be too difficult.

One shouldn't minimize Amazon's mighty marketing power, or their mighty infrastructure, or their customer goodwill, or their good hardware, or the extent to which they have a good eye in a market where everyone else is blind. And these things are going to continue to give them a mighty share of the publishing industry, because writers and vendors go where the money is. But they don't have a monopoly, and I don't see how they have an incipient monopoly, because publishing text is so easy that it literally can't be stopped by major governments.

zitterbewegung• 15 years ago

Google already has an eBook publishing arm. See http://books.google.com/ebooks

naner• 15 years ago

Or sold on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Giant-Machine-Amazon-com-Story/...

jisaacstone• 15 years ago

The article fails to answer its own question. It just does a bit of hand-waving and points at the apple app store.

mc32• 15 years ago

Technically it would be their channel to control, just as Wal*Mart controls what inventory it carries (in music, for example).

Free speech would not apply as it's not government --but PR would suffer if they did restrict content, I think.

Still, I think if they decided to get into the business of gatekeeper, the gov (and the public) would want to investigate their actions --whether it would be legally actionable I have no idea. I think it would be foolish of them to go in that direction --it would be an opportunity for a smaller player to establish themselves as the non-paternalistic alternative.

nobody314159• 15 years ago

They wouldn't care

If it sells they make money - laugh at that suckers!

If it doesn't sell then nobody read it.

As some heavy metal band said about their albums being burned in the bible belt - "Those sales still count for the charts"!

danmaz74• 15 years ago

When digital publishing and DRM technologies will become mainstream and standardized enough, I guess that the industry will have to agree on an open standard for e-books - or risk that governments will impose one by law.

The latter is what I think will - and in my opinion should - happen if Amazon and/or Apple ended up in a monopolistic/duopolistic position with their ebook/pad gadgets while keeping a strict control over what can be sold there. Which is probably what Amazon is trying to do, but in the long run I don't think that would be sustainable (either by market forces or government intervention).

So for publishers the long term real issue is most likely to be how to add value as (mostly) digital publishers, but not how to survive against a monopoly.

sixtofour• 15 years ago

If Amazon dominates publishing, to the point of driving a noticeable number of publishers out of business, we'll have fewer choices in books. There will be more titles, and we'll find less worth reading.

Amazon sells an uncountable number of products because other companies make those products. Amazon cannot make all those products themselves.

Similarly, Amazon cannot shepherd within an order of magnitude the same number of more or less worthwhile books into the market as current publishers are doing today.

"Self publish yadda yadda whatever." Yes, Amazon will offload much of the production of books to the authors. And yes, Amazon can just say "yes" and print any book on demand. Paradoxically, I have a lot of books actually available to me because publishers have acted as gatekeepers/curators. I can't possibly find as many mostly-self-published printed on demand or kindle Amazon books worth my attention as I can currently by choosing from the pre-filtered publisher-produced books of now.

</old man>

ph0rque• 15 years ago

What are the services that publishers provide that we really value? ... Is it thoughtful editing and careful editing? Maybe, but many people accustomed to reading lightly-edited posts on the web may think that this sort of production is overvalued.

This gives me an idea: use the readers as editors. For every mistake found, offer $0.X rebate off their next book by the author.

pdovy• 15 years ago

This is a cool idea. I doubt you'd even need to offer a rebate at all, though it'd be an interesting incentive. If reporting errors was as easy as highlighting a passage and clicking a button on your e-book reader, I bet a lot of people would do it.

ktf• 15 years ago

This is an interesting idea, but many people don't realize that editing a book is more than just "finding mistakes." That's a proof reader's job. A good developmental editor helps shape a book from the ground up, and can make a significant impact on the final product.

(Disclaimer: I edit books for a living.)

What Would Happen if Amazon Ruled Publishing?

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