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What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

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Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#61

Post by Atropos »

What would the world be like, if you could instantly buy every book as an ebook anywhere in the world, if ereaders were clearly more convenient to use than paperbooks and if they were so cheap, that everybody who now owns 1 book would own 1 ereader?

I might be wrong, but in my imagination this would be awesome, offering nearly limitless possibilities for disruption. For example the adoption of open-source textbooks in schools would be much easier, academic research in some countries would really benefit from easier access to materials.

I think there is no question that this will be technologically feasible at some point in the future. The question is, if it happens and when. I hope it happens as fast as possible and judging by the development of the ebook world from 1990-2007 and 2007-Now, Amazon is by far more beneficial than the traditional publishers in this regard.

Certainly a monopoly is never optimal, but let's worry about that once the future has arrived. There is always antitrust law. Until then, I hope Amazon (or Google or Apple or ...) achieves as much marketshare as possible and pushes the development onward.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#62

Post by bmelton »

marquis wrote: post #21
noelwelsh wrote: post #12

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'm looking forward to a world where some books return to their 1800s newspaper-style formats: short chapters published weekly, like we get some graphic novels on the web now. I WANT to pay the author, and look forward to this happening. It's definitely a great space to look into. It may exist already and I don't know about it? (again, leaving it open for some startup to make waves..)

I already posted this elsewhere in the thread, but since it directly applies here too, you should check out Leanpub[1].

[1] - http://leanpub.com/

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#63

Post by brazzy »

bambax wrote: 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.

Before Amazon, there was at least one additional intermediary (wholesaler).

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#64

Post by brazzy »

bambax wrote: post #27
cstross wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My nephew is 14 and has already published not one, but four books on the Kindle platform (one he wrote himself, the other three his grandfather wrote). The new generations of authors will be very tech-savvy, to a point that may sound incredible now but is very real. And even if some, or the majority, of authors don't want to do this themselves, why can't they hire a bunch of folks to do it for them? Why would they ha…

My nephew is 14 and has already published not one, but four books on the Kindle platform

So your example for something that could replace Amazon... is Amazon?

Amazon is doing at least two things really well that is going to be completely impractical for individual self-publishing authors to do on their own: Providing a go-to place for customers looking for books, and payment processing.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#65

Post by bambax »

brazzy wrote: post #64
bambax wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nephew is 14 and has already published not one, but four books on the Kindle platform (one he wrote himself, the other three his grandfather wrote). The new generations of authors will be very tech-savvy, to a point that may sound incredible now but is very real. And even if some, or the majority, of authors don't want to do this themselves, why can't they hire a bunch of folks to do it for them? Why would they ha…

My nephew is 14 and has already published not one, but four books on the Kindle platform So your example for something that could replace Amazon... is Amazon? Amazon is doing at least two things really well that is going to be completely impractical for individual self-publishing authors to do on their own: Providing a go-to place for customers looking for books, and payment processing.

> So your example for something that could replace Amazon... is Amazon?

Yes! ;-) The example was used to refute the fact that authors are technically incompetent. In the next generation most people will be able to put together an ebook.

I think the threat to Amazon will come first from best-selling authors, who already have a faithful following of their own. For everybody else, Amazon is great, for now.

But imagine a future where a search engine can help you find great ebooks, and where a simple payment system can let you buy them directly from authors (charging 2-3% to authors) -- why would you need Amazon then?

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#66

Post by brazzy »

bambax wrote: post #65
brazzy wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My nephew is 14 and has already published not one, but four books on the Kindle platform So your example for something that could replace Amazon... is Amazon? Amazon is doing at least two things really well that is going to be completely impractical for individual self-publishing authors to do on their own: Providing a go-to place for customers looking for books, and payment processing.

> So your example for something that could replace Amazon... is Amazon? Yes! ;-) The example was used to refute the fact that authors are technically incompetent. In the next generation most people will be able to put together an ebook. I think the threat to Amazon will come first from best-selling authors, who already have a faithful following of their own. For everybody else, Amazon is great, for now. But imagine a…

"a search engine can help you find great ebooks, and where a simple payment system can let you buy them"

You just described Amazon. On top of that, they have the recommendation engine, public wishlist, affiliate program, and allow you to buy all kinds of other products via the same UI.

It's going to be very, very hard for any competitor to become attractive enough for customers to matter. I don't think even best-selling authors can just ignore that factor.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#67

Post by bambax »

brazzy wrote: post #66
bambax wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So your example for something that could replace Amazon... is Amazon? Yes! ;-) The example was used to refute the fact that authors are technically incompetent. In the next generation most people will be able to put together an ebook. I think the threat to Amazon will come first from best-selling authors, who already have a faithful following of their own. For everybody else, Amazon is great, for now. But imagine a…

"a search engine can help you find great ebooks, and where a simple payment system can let you buy them" You just described Amazon. On top of that, they have the recommendation engine, public wishlist, affiliate program, and allow you to buy all kinds of other products via the same UI. It's going to be very, very hard for any competitor to become attractive enough for customers to matter. I don't think even best-sell…

Of course customers don't mind one way or the other. Authors do; they'd rather keep 100% than 70% or 30%.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#68

Post by dagw »

bambax wrote: post #67
brazzy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a search engine can help you find great ebooks, and where a simple payment system can let you buy them" You just described Amazon. On top of that, they have the recommendation engine, public wishlist, affiliate program, and allow you to buy all kinds of other products via the same UI. It's going to be very, very hard for any competitor to become attractive enough for customers to matter. I don't think even best-sell…

Of course customers don't mind one way or the other. Authors do; they'd rather keep 100% than 70% or 30%.

Authors realize the importance of distribution channels. They'd rather keep 70% of 100k sales than 100% of 10k sales.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#69

Post by lucian1900 »

ghshephard wrote: post #57
sgentle wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, I don't think Amazon is cheating. The whole point of disintermediation is to be more efficient and drive down prices. I'm certain prices will be lower under King Bezos, and perhaps payments to authors will stay high (though that's far less certain). It's important to consider that Amazon has always behaved quite consistently. Even when it had 90% of the ebook market, it was the one pushing to keep prices down. In…

"Google can arbitrarily cut off access to my email," - Use iMap and host your domain through Gmail. That way, if Google acts improperly, you (A) have all your mail locally in your iMap folders (also useful when flying), and (B) you can point your MX records at an alternate destination and pick up your mail there.

Heh, iMap.

Re: What Amazon's ebook strategy really means

#70

Post by lucian1900 »

rogerbinns wrote: post #51
bmelton wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding screens, I honestly don't know that making the screen better makes for a better reading experience. I'm in LOVE with my Kindle eInk display and, while it isn't nearly as 'all around good' as a Retina display for anything other than reading, I can't read for nearly as long on a retina screen as I can on eInk. The only complaint I would posit for eInk is that page turns are fairly slow, but that's on my older…

> Regarding screens, I honestly don't know that making the screen better makes for a better reading experience. I have several Android devices (phones, tablet) and an iPod Touch. They are all useless for reading outside (in the shade) because the screens are too reflective. Indoors they are all fine. I do most of my reading outside so this turns out to be a big problem. I can't get a Kindle for technical reasons (I d…

You might find Notion Ink's Adam tablet interesting, it has a Pixel Qi transreflective display.

I have a Sony PRS-350 solely for reading and I love it. The Kobo and Nook readers are also nice and tend to have more features.

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