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What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

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Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#31
post #8
post #7

But how is Amazon "disintermediating" anything? It's simply taking the place of a previous intermediary (bookshops). The next step will be that authors will sell to readers directly; that will disintermediate both publishers and Amazon, and there's no reason it should not happen.

Au contraire: the reason it won't happen is that most folks are not tech-savvy geeks. Most writers want to write, not deal with the minutiae of self-publishing (which is not the same thing at all), and most readers who buy ebooks aren't savvy enough about downloading files and shoving them onto a peripheral device. Oh, and reading books is already a marginal activity: anything that reduces the size of the market by e…

I don't think so, for two (related) reasons:

When it follows the rules, disruption starts at the low end, competing with non consumption and its near margin. Lots of books can't be viably published via the old system but might still be viable fo self publishing. For example, a book that can expect 2000 sales.

The question is not necessarily will the established authors & publishers prefer "to write, not deal with the minutiae of self-publishing." The question is will future authors prefer to try and find someone willing to publish their books or will they just self publish? I think a lot of them will self publish.

The second reason is cost. The traditional publishing process is expensive. It's an all exclusive package that includes financing, editing, promoting and all sorts of other stuff that authors probably want to avoid but it costs. Authors earn a small percentage of the price of a book. From what I understand, it can be between 1% & 25%. That is a lot of room for improvement.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#32
post #5
post #4

This was a interesting read and the OP makes a good point. But couldn't the publishers just make a deal with e-book reader makers (which are struggling against Amazon too) and create a DRM "open" standard? By the way, I'm almost only buying ebooks from Amazon lately and, despite the convenience, this does make me pretty uneasy.

I suspect if they tried such a gambit, AMZN could -- justifiably -- call for a DoJ investigation into unfair restraint of trade. (Or just ignore it altogether, insofar as AMZN has still got over 60% of the US ebook market.) Besides, the whole point of DRM is to impede portability. What's got the publishers into this mess is being more concerned about piracy (and therefore opposing portability) than about empowering a…

In one important aspect music differed from movies and books: Music was never in a copy protected format. The point of digital songs with DRM was absurd, because you could just rip & burn an original CD. But movies were copy protected even on VHS cassettes. DVD and BluRay are easy to rip/burn, but pro forma they have a DRM. And ORC scanning of books is inconvenient. It makes sense to at least try to establish a DRM for digital books.

But it is true: "All this has happened before. All this will happen again." (So say we all)

iTunes DRM helped not the big labels, but turned out to be a (small?) competitive advantage of Apple. Steve Jobs just didn't care, because Apple is in the business to sell the razor (iPod). This is a compelling analogy what happens now in the eBook disruption. With the difference that Amazon is in the business to subsidize the Kindle plattform to sell more blades (books).

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#33
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Cheap ebook reader devices ... are still a minority pursuit today" Amazon sold over 4 million Kindles in December alone, and now sells more ebooks than paperback and hardcover combined . With one or two exceptions, every serious reader I know has a Kindle, an iPad, or both.

I think you've forgotten just what things were like even as little as five years ago. The rate of change in publishing today is like the web circa 1992-97.

Have you ever read ebooks on a palm? It was pretty obvious to me that that was the future. It needed someone to take the idea seriously for it to become mass market. Amazon did.

As, I should add, have O'Reilly.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#34
I'm curious about the economics of self-publishing.

What does it cost for an editor to edit a 300-400 page novel written by a decent author?

How about cover art?

Marketing is an entirely different animal. I dont think you do book tours for ebooks.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#35

I largely agree with the analysis in this essay, but I believe the book market can be more significantly disrupted than is currently being suggested. Here are the significant changes I see: - Screen technology will improve so that the distinction between e-paper and conventional displays becomes irrelevant. I really think the retina display on the iPad is good enough for most people in most situations, and that the i…

I don't think beefed up LCD displays are superior to eink for the purpose of reading books (or text). Thats akin to adding another horse to horse carriage while someone is rapidly iterating cars. It might happen that the LCD prevails - if its true that people place a huge premium on integrated solutions. Thats one theory behind the explosion of the smartphone market.

I don't think LCD is superior to e-paper for reading. I just think LCD is good enough for most people already (in the high resolution iPad) and there is at least some possibility that a non-light emitting display with colour and fast refresh will be developed.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#36
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you've forgotten just what things were like even as little as five years ago. The rate of change in publishing today is like the web circa 1992-97.

Have you ever read ebooks on a palm? It was pretty obvious to me that that was the future. It needed someone to take the idea seriously for it to become mass market. Amazon did. As, I should add, have O'Reilly.

Yes, I have read ebooks on a palm. And on a Psion 5 before that. (I started reading ebooks around 1996-97 and have been banging on about them ever since.)

Yes, O'Reilly. Yes also Baen (via Webscription.net). But there wouldn't be a mass ebook market at this point if the big publishing conglomerates -- who produce 80% of the books sold -- weren't on board with ebook publishing.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#37
"Amazon has the potential to be like that predatory big box retailer on a global scale." Amazon is not so good at global (compared to other big internet businesses anyway) It only really works in a selected few countries/languages (US + Canada China France Germany Italy Japan Spain United Kingdom, as the site tells us)

Another interesting question arising from that is: What are countries/languages which has no Amazon are going to do? They don't have monopoly, but they perhaps also lag behind in e-book sales, suffering from the lack of synergy and convenience provided by amazon website + readers + applications + 3rd party support.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#38
post #19

I'd have more sympathy for this point of view if the Big 6 publishers hadn't been running a de facto cartel since, well... forever, and basing their relationship with authors on a business model that could be compared, unfavorably, with a payday loan operation. The DeBeers artificial scarcity model of publishing doesn't work any more. I won't miss it. Note that there will still be plenty of work for editors, cover ar…

I'd have more sympathy for this point of view if the Big 6 publishers hadn't been running a de facto cartel since, well... forever, and basing their relationship with authors on a business model that could be compared, unfavorably, with a payday loan operation. Seriously? Standard author contracts have clauses that a) acknowledge that the author owns all copyrights & is only granting the publisher a limited right to…

By comparison to the music industry, Hell itself is populated by saints.

If the best you can say about an industry is that it's not as bad as the music business, well...

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#39
Not everyone lives in cities surrounded by mega bookshop/cafes, prior to Amazon, if I wanted a book I had to order it from the library, pay $2 and pick it up after a 50 minute drive to town. ditto if I wanted to buy a book it was $15-$30 and a 50 minute drive and a really small choice unless I ordered and waited another 2 weeks. (Prices converted from NZ$ to US$) - Amazon delivered actual real books from the US to NZ for less than that and the kindle moves me now to a level playing field with the rest of the world and no trees cut down or gas guzzled in the process.

Seriously I've been stuffed ridged on price for the past 30 years by book sellers and publishers, and as much as I hate corporate evil, I dont consider amazon has done anything evil (yet), and if anything they have delivered payback in the form of a large kick in the nuts to the big publishing houses. If these people envy Amazons business model then make a better one and stop fucking whinging!

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#40
post #10
post #6

I agree largely with this--especially about removing DRM. What complicates it for me is that it's very hard for me to have any sympathy for the publishers as they brought this upon themselves. They can't play victim as long as they keep DRM.

And what's to keep Amazon from keeping the DRM even if the publishers don't require it?

Just like they did with Audible. And according to this[1] article on BoingBoing, they promised to do away with DRM, but have still not done it in FOUR years! Link[1]: http://boingboing.net/2008/01/31/amazon-buys-audible.html

edit: they = Amazon

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