Fortune: “Book publishers in denial on Amazon’s e-book sales”
Daniel Roberts’ article is worth a read. He was talking to attendees at BookExpo America, focusing on Amazon’s recent announcement that e-books outsell all paperbooks (p-books) combined at Amazon now.
The headline is a bit misleading…bookstore folks get more attention in it than publishers.
That’s, of course, a very different perspective. A bookseller doesn’t get any money when Amazon sells an e-book…a publisher does.
There were a couple of weird things in the piece. How about this quotation?
“I don’t believe a thing Amazon says anyway.”
Um…care to give a reason for that? The speaker certainly may have said a lot more than that, but without a reason, it just sounds…petulant, I suppose.
It’s also stated that someone wouldn’t get a Kindle, because that person doesn’t like being bound to Amazon to buy books. If I was still a brick-and-mortar bookstore manager, I would have done more research than that before I made a statement like that. Even though Amazon doesn’t currently do EPUB with DRM (Digital Rights Management), it’s one of the most open systems out there…and you can buy books for it from other places.
There is one more I can’t let go before I leave the rest to the original article. That’s this statement:
“…everyone involved makes less money from the sale of an e-book…”
Tell that to Amanda Hocking, or John Locke, or D.D. Scott, or all the other people who are making money being able to independently publish e-books. A very large number of those, we can assume, would have made no money if they had to go the p-book route…
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.
May 28, 2011 at 5:26 am |
Amazon also recently announced that it will launch its own general interest trade publishing imprint, for which it has poached Larry Kirshbaum, formerly of Hachette, to run. This news had some people at Book Expo further aggrieved.
A May 9, 2011 report from Consumer Edge Research explains: “Amazon is already the second-biggest player in physical books in the U.S. and the biggest player in e-books. An aggressive move into book publishing will likely enhance and consolidate the company’s power. We expect to hear a lot of bellyaching from traditional book publishers, who already in many cases resent Amazon’s power.”
If the traditional publishers were more flexible and offered the better royalty rates and services to authors, as well as lower prices to readers, Amazon probably wouldn’t be pushing into the publishing world. Like any good business, they saw a hole in publishing services and are working to fill it. Good for them.
That’s what competition is all about. If publishers don’t like it, they should come up with ways to change their business model to better benefit authors and readers, instead of jealous complaining.
May 28, 2011 at 2:41 pm |
Thanks for writing, Common!
Honestly, I think without the Agency Model, Amazon wouldn’t have been moving into publishing in this way. The relationship of publisher/retailer had been working….when it got upended, all sorts of new possibilities emerged. “We can’t be competitive on pricing any more with books from pubishers? We’ll stop using publishers.” I’m not convinced it’s a good move for Amazon, but as a reader, it’s interesting to see.
May 28, 2011 at 9:04 am |
From the buyer’s perspective, this isn’t a bug but a feature! (And many authors benefit from the absence of gatekeepers and middlemen.)
May 28, 2011 at 3:47 pm |
They’re circling the bowl, so they’re climbing the walls.
May 28, 2011 at 6:21 pm |
Bufo, can you say more about buying books from places other than Amazon? I wasn’t aware of this when someone brought up this particular objection at a party last night.
May 29, 2011 at 1:16 am |
Thanks for writing, Laura!
Sure.
Of course, there are a lot of places to get books that are out of copyright for the Kindle (http://www.feedbooks.com, http://www.archve.org, http://www.gutenberg.org, and so on), but that’s not what most people mean.
You can get in-copyright books from a few sources:
http://www.fictionwise.com is owned by Barnes & Noble. You do need to get multiformat books…the Kindle can do mobi books as long as they are “unsecured”.
Another example is Baen
http://www.baen.com/
They have well-known science fiction and fantasy authors.
Some people also read Google books in the browser on the K3.
Later this year, people will also be able to get public library books on the Kindle…that’s not buying them, but it is a way to get them.
May 31, 2011 at 11:03 pm
pssst . . . don’t forget Smashwords.
http://www.smashwords.com/
May 29, 2011 at 2:25 pm |
Thanks, Bufo.
OK, I think I told her correctly. When you said we can buy books for the Kindle from other places, I was picturing something more widely available. My friend was asking about buying a book she wants to read and not wanting to be tied to Amazon. I said she couldn’t do that, and I think I was right for what she wants, as those sites don’t seem to have large (Fictionwise) or diverse (Baen) catalogs.
For some reason that I can’t quite understand, she doesn’t like Amazon (I think it probably has to do with supporting local booksellers, at least in part). I do like Amazon, so that wasn’t a barrier for me.
May 29, 2011 at 4:20 pm |
Thanks for writing, Laura!
Good.
There’s a mistaken idea that all devices which can read EPUB DRM (Digital Rights Management) can all read each other’s books, and that makes Amazon seem less open. iBooks is probably the most closed-system as far as e-book stores go, but you are going to have a tough time buying a New York Times bestseller (legally) and reading it on dedicated EBRs from different companies.
June 8, 2011 at 12:26 pm |
She can also go to iTunes – surprisingly enough, they also offer books…
May 29, 2011 at 7:18 pm |
In retrospect, I think part of what may have happened is that our local bookstore is trying to promote buying Google ebooks through them:
http://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/google-ebooks
Quote from that page: “E-pub format which is compatible with smartphones, laptops and most e-reading devices (except the Kindle)”
This is the kind of thing that would tip my friend’s loyalty away from Amazon, although I’m pretty sure there’s some not-altogether-rational antipathy towards Amazon there anyway.
Again, thanks – I do find this whole world unexpectedly interesting.
May 29, 2011 at 10:02 pm |
Thanks for writing, Laura!
Yes, I can see that. As I mentioned, people can read those Google books in the browser on the Kindle 3, and they do. That’s not the same thing, though.
I’m a former bookstore manager, and this is a very interesting set up to me.
I checked the site. The Google e-books I see right away are books from Agency Model publishers (those are the six largest US trade publishers, mostly). That means the price is the same everywhere.
You could buy the same books in the Kindle store for the same price.
By buying them “through” the local bookstore, you are supporting it, of course. The author and the publisher get the same money.
Obviously, it’s nice to be able to support a local business…but there are more limitations with Google Books than with Kindle store books. You might find this article interesting:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/12/google-bookstore/
Honestly, when I was running a bookstore, I wouldn’t have wanted people to support our store to spite somebody else…I’d want them to support our store because they liked it.
Amazon is going to make full Kindle books available by browser, but that doesn’t mean you support local bookstores when you buy them…just that you’ll be able to read them on a NOOK Color, for example.
You might also enjoy this story I wrote:
http://ilmk.wordpress.com/2011/02/20/a-trip-to-the-bookstore/
I never quite understand why some people don’t like Amazon…however, I have issues with Apple, and many people love them. I can understand why bookstore owners/managers might resent Amazon…they are changing the world, making books more accessible…and when you’ve been selling a relatively scarce commodity, that’s not a good thing.
May 30, 2011 at 12:51 pm
Well, good point – I, too, have issues with Apple that aren’t entirely rational. It’s hard to explain to people why I don’t have ITunes on my computer.
Love the story. A friend’s 7-year old son recently informed his father that, “You grew up in simpler times, Dad”.
I think in the case of my friend J, it’s more loyalty to the local bookstore that inspired the negative feelings towards Amazon, which she sees as a threat (and then she’s sort of manufactured other reasons to dislike Amazon). When a large chain moved here, she wouldn’t shop there, either (and that chain was Borders and is now gone, while people like J helped to keep the local store alive). And to tell the truth, I have similar loyalties, but I am just less consistent than J. I have 2 Amazon travel cups from the days when they were giving them away to loyal customers, so that says something, I guess!
June 8, 2011 at 8:44 am |
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