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Publishing exists in a continual state of forecasting its own demise; at one major house, there is a running joke that the second book published on the Gutenberg press was about the death of the publishing business.
thenewgreen · 4685 days ago · link ·
- Just days before the iPad went on sale, on April 3rd, there were rumors that Apple might list best-sellers for as little as $9.99. Apple agreed to the agency model for just one year, and, as publishers are acutely aware, Jobs has a history, with music and television companies, of fighting to reduce prices. One publisher said, “Maybe Apple will want to come back in a year and bite our heads off.”
I have a relative that works for a large book publishing and binding company in Michigan. They are on their last legs and are likely closing doors soon. I'm not sure what to make of this, it's analogous to the US Postal service. Do I want people to lose jobs? No but at the same time we can't hold on to archaic manufacturing and outdated service providers. The next 5 years are going to be really interesting in this regard.
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What is potentially dangerous is that companies like Amazon will become the curators of literature instead of the publishers. While both are of course concerned with turning a profit, I doubt if Amazon really cares as much about the integrity of its publications. Like the article pointed out huge stores like Wal-mart and Costco account for 40% of the market mostly pandering very popular mainstream books that create larger revenues. The industry will follow suit and produce more books of this kind and less independent and obscure works. I think it will change the way authors write and what they write about.
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thenewgreen · 4685 days ago · link ·
I think if you eliminate the publishers and make it possible for anyone to offer their work on Amazon etc you'll have the same effect you did with music. I'm able to sell my albums through iTunes without being signed to a label or having a publishing agent etc. People like me have been able to reach thousands of people when in the past that wouldn't have been possible. I see obscure work benefitting from this.
It is important to note that the Department of Justice has just sued Apple and the major publishers for this exact price fixing scheme. We should get to see pretty soon whether it was worth a few years of slightly inflated profits.
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thenewgreen · 4685 days ago · link ·
- We should get to see pretty soon whether it was worth a few years of slightly inflated profits.
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The publishers are rightly terrified of their name brand authors (the only ones who make them money) jumping ship to publish directly through Amazon. If you were E.L. James, Nicholas Sparks, or Mary Higgins Clark, the 70% royalty they're offering is unbeatable.