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Author Charles Stross: Is Amazon a Malignant Monopoly, Or Just Plain Evil?
An anonymous reader writes "Sci-fi author Charles Stross has a post providing insight into Amazon's recent bullying tactics against a major book publishing group. He puts the fight into perspective for the two most important parts of the book market: author and reader. He says: 'Amazon's strategy (as I noted in 2012) is to squat on the distribution channel, artificially subsidize the price of ebooks ("dumping" or predatory pricing) to get consumers hooked, rely on DRM on the walled garden of the Kindle store to lock consumers onto their platform, and then to use their monopsony buying power to grab the publishers' share of the profits. If you're a consumer, in the short term this is good news: it means you get cheap books. But if you're a reader, you probably like to read new books. By driving down the unit revenue, Amazon makes it really hard for publishers—who are a proxy for authors—to turn a profit. Eventually they go out of business, leaving just Amazon as a monopoly distribution channel retailing the output of an atomized cloud of highly vulnerable self-employed piece-workers like myself. At which point the screws can be tightened indefinitely. And after a while, there will be no more Charlie Stross novels because I will be unable to earn a living and will have to go find a paying job. TL:DR; Amazon's strategy against Hachette is that of a bullying combine the size of WalMart leaning on a much smaller supplier. And the smaller supplier in turn relies on really small suppliers like me. It's anti-author, and in the long term it will deprive you of the books you want to read.'"
The cancer analogies are VERY apt.
Go to the store and buy them! They're ace! And you can give them to your friends afterwards.
I downloaded a crapload of them, he's really good.
Am I making it harder or easier for him to make a living?
Do not meddle in the affairs of geeks for they are subtle and quick to anger
The title of this comment may be provocative, but after buying a Kindle Paperwhite, something that Amazon does really well (and just keep it in airplane mode all the time so you don't have to deal with Amazon's ecosystem), I have found myself with such a huge choice of classic literature titles from either Project Gutenberg or pirate ebook sites, that I feel I'll never catch up with all the old stuff, let alone hunger after anything new. For Mr. Stross, I'm sorry, but you're competing with the past, and there are a myriad of science-fiction writers like yourself that already have more books out there than anyone can read.
have your publisher stop selling through Amazon entirely. Convince other publishers to do the same. Not a damned thing in the world says you have to use Amazon. Walk away from them and use iTunes, Barnes & Noble, or hell open your own store and control the distribution channel yourselves.
Seriously, manufacturers walk away from Wal-Mart all the time. Nothing stopping book publishers from doing the same. Optionally jsut provide your crap b-list titles and in every single one of those provide info how to get your more popular stuff.
Don't complain they are bullies, walk away from their marketplace. If no one uses them, they either go under or come back to the table to negotiate in better faith.
Yes, Amazon wants no more publishers to get a cut, just them and the author. And yes, they will want to lower the author's incentive to the minimum necessary for them to write., But not lower than that.
The publisher's aren't just representing the author. They are middle men.
Amazon will simply replace them with one vertically integrated company.
Worse for authors, maybe, but it owuld be beyond stupid for them to make it worse than the alternative.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
The author's intentions could be summarized as, "Does this false dichotomy make me look smart?"
Not seeing why, if a publisher doesn't want to sell though the Amazon store, they can't as easily sell though their own website or even though traditional brick and mortar stores. For that matter, I don't see why an author can't do that themselves and cut out the other middleman, unless they are tied into an exclusive contract.
kindle books are just files - you can sell them from anywhere.
-=DaveHowe=-
Hachette has been around for quite some time. Their entry to the US market was by way of buying Time Warner books. They've bought Hyperion books too.
So it's probably not a struggle between the big mean web store and the innocent niche publisher. I don't think either of them are even slightly concerned with your interests.
Squeezing your suppliers' profit margins is never a good long-term strategy. Amazon is not yet powerful enough to completely dictate to publishers; if they band together and reject Amazon, Amazon will soon be left with no worthwhile content.
If Amazon needs more money, it can raise its prices slightly. There are effectively no viable competitors in the online book market and Amazon's prices are very low, so it does have some room to move without annoying its suppliers.
Yes, that's too bad if you buy books, but in the long run it's better for everyone to get a fair share of the profits.
and the musican for that matter create their own distribution websites. Seriously there's power in numbers especailly with the connection and access to instant customers they already have. They just need to accept the fact that people will pirate like people will shoplift. Make the products price reflect the production/distrubution costs and don't treat you customers as criminal and they will buy.
Even though I don't read books that much these days I do watch lots of movies/shows and if I could "buy to own" new releases that play cross platform with out some special player for say $10 and older movies for $4-5 there would be WAY less money in my bank account.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
The consumer (reader in this case) hardly suffers from the loss of the middle market keeping prices artificially high. You, as the author are competing not against Amazon, but against other Authors for position on a consumer's device. The loss of publishers in my opinion, is a good thing. It allows for competition (um, free market anyone?) and anyone, of any size can get their book to the reader. If you cannot get enough of a lion's share to keep afloat, then it is likely you are not popular enough and indeed should consider writing more of a hobby. This is the equivalent of the music industries problem of promoting only certain people over others. Itunes (online music distribution) showed how broken the old model was.
Amazon is grabbing publishers share of the profits? Why do we care? Publishers are just middlemen leaches. They used to add value because publishing used to be expensive. Now people could easily publish their own given a marketplace which wasn't controlled by publishers (like... amazon?).
Amazon might drive the publishers out of business, or cut into their profits? Good.
"Malignant - Or Just Plain Evil" is asking if Jeff Bezos is still beating his wife.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Should not the analogy continue a bit further with:
and when there are no more Charlie Stross novels, the customers can not buy them, making Amazon's incomes diminish. At which time they have to pay more to the Charlie Strosses out there.
Is this not just precise how capitalism is supposed to work?
Publishers are not "proxys for authors". They are another obsolete industry group fighting the inevitable for their survival, no different than the RIAA.
Assume there is a world where I as an author can contract with a third party for proofreading and editing at a fixed cost, and then "self publish" to Amazon and other eBook providers, without a man in the middle publisher eating up my profits, I can sell the books far cheaper and interact directly with my audience. Many authors are flocking to self-publish nowadays and the number is just going to keep growing.
Any organism will try to dominate its environment.
Corporations are the same; they will work to optimize the merger for themselves. Then either they will dominate, or someone will come along and outcompete them, and they adapt or die.
Let's remember that publishers Mr Stross is bemoaning have themselves acted as plutocratic gatekeepers to the public reading markets for a century or more themselves.
Amazon's just doing it better now.
I'm sorry if an author feels he can no longer make a living being a writer, but he isn't entitled to that occupation. He can either keep doing it because he loves it, it he can, as he said, get a real job. Sorry if capitalism is painful that way.
-Styopa
Amazon isn't forcing DRM on the publishers. They would be quite happy to let them sell ebooks without it.
That and the publishers "share" of profits is exactly zero. Anything above that is a market inefficiency.
It hasn't been that long since publishers formed a cartel with Apple and tried to stick it to Amazon.
Publishers demanded that Amazon use DRM... and now whine that readers are locked in to Kindle because that DRM prevents them from moving those books to a different ebook reader.
Any publisher who wants to can upload DRM-free ebooks to Amazon.
Amazon is just your standard psychopathic corporation.
It has no "conscience" and it focused only on making more money. At times this is good or bad for consumers and suppliers.
It exploits workers (good for consumers, bad for workers, good for profits).
It (mostly) exploits suppliers (good for consumers, bad for suppliers, good for profits).
It exploits government tax rules (sales tax, corporate tax, etc.)... (bad for tax revenue, good for consumers in the short term, good for profits)
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
As far as I can tell, if it's legal, available, and a little profitable, Amazon will sell you any damned thing they can get their hands on.
They're not overly concerned about what you buy from them, just as long as you do.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I don't see a problem. I can take any file, convert to MOBI (or use PDF) and upload it to my Kindle or Kindle App. So there's nothing stopping Mr. Stross from selling me his e-books from his own web site, or starting a collective with a bunch of other authors. (SFWA?)
What I interpret him to mean is that he wants to do the same as Amazon, (a) charge me the same price for a file I download as if I bought a hardcover book, and (b) still wrap it in highly restrictive DRM so that having bought it, I don't own it, and my ability to read is at the mercy of whatever DRM configuration they dream up and only as long as they continue to support it.
Take a lesson from the music industry (strange to hear anyone say that!). They tried all sorts of restrictive DRM, but today you can buy a song for a dollar as an unrestricted MP3 where you used to have to buy the CD for $10 or more. Supposedly, they are still making money that way. The price is lower, but purchase is become an impulse thing rather than a big expenditure.
If I buy a paperback off the rack in the drugstore for $8.99, how much is the author getting anyway? Better to sell the ebook for $2 and pocket the majority of that. If Amazon won't give you that deal - sell off your own website.
Anybody who uses Kindles to read DRM'd books has no appreciation for knowledge or art
So... is it DRM or the Kindle itself that removes the ability to appreciate knowledge or art? FWIW, I don't own a kindle, but I think buying one and using it would not change my level of appreciation.
and any author who relies on this customer base is making a grave mistake.
All authors should be elitists who only let the right kind of people read their books?
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
>When I see Physical Book costing more then eBook
Methinks you meant that the other way around. I'd expect a physical to cost more than a virtual. On account of um.. paper. :)
So... is it DRM or the Kindle itself that removes the ability to appreciate knowledge or art?
Kindles don't have the new book smell, without which a true appreciation of literary art is impossible. Or the old book smell, where they get damp and mouldy.
It's a bit duplicitous to criticize Amazon for using DRM, when the primary reason you wish to sell your book on Amazon is to take advantage of their DRM for your ebook. Non-DRMed books from any source can be converted to work on the Kindles just fine. Set up your own website, sell ebooks there, and retain 100% of the profit. Yeah a lot of people shop on Amazon, but they search with Google, BIng, and Yahoo. If your website is the primary source for your ebooks, it's almost guaranteed to rank in the top 3 search results and people will find it.
Oh, but you want DRM on your ebooks when people read them on a Kindle? Well, just as you have the right to use DRM to restrict what readers do with your ebooks, Amazon has the right to use DRM to restrict how authors sell their books if they want to be readable on a Kindle. Sorry, them's the breaks. Live by DRM, die by DRM. Don't expect me to shed a tear because someone is arbitrarily restricting your options, when that's exactly what you're doing to me.
Tor and Baen don't do DRM. That's a very good start.
There may be others, too, but it's remarkably hard to find out who they are without buying a book to find out you can't read it. Anyone care to contribute to the list?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
But... the guy before me got free bread!
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
The reality is publishing is a dying business. It used to be that the only way an author could sell to the mass market was by begging publishers to take it to print. Naturally because it limited competition it tremendously benefited big, established authors like Stross. Another unfortunate side effect was that it severely limited books about skeptical topics like debunking paranormal nonsense. It's no accident that in book stores there's usually only a handful of science related books and row upon row of new age spirituality books, because that's what the PUBLISHERS decided was popular. Amazon and other e-publishing platforms changed all that. Now we're seeing an explosion in lower priced books with far more variety than could be conceived before. What Stross is really saying is that people should pay more and have fewer choices about what they pay for. Let's not pretend it's anything other than a cynical ploy to turn people against a system that has so far proven to be far more pro-consumer for his personal gain. Shame on you Mr. Stross, shame on you.
Every light carries a shadow
Publishers, especially Elsevier, deserve a good kicking. They've profited by screwing authors and customers. They've done all in their power to hold back progress, for the sake of their antiquated and extremely inefficient business model. They've crossed the line repeatedly, suing customers, clinging hard to bad logic (copying = stealing, DRM is good and it works). and spewing propaganda based on it.
Authors, whom one might expect to be just a little wiser, a little more in touch with reality, have, with a few notable exceptions, fallen for publisher bull. It's hard to be sympathetic to the struggling authors who insist that their customers stick with dead trees or wear DRM chains because that's the only way they can think to make the system work so they can earn a living. Telling fans that not wearing DRM chains is somehow unfair to authors is a fast way to lose them. That's logic from the same murky depths of religious dogma that says because the Bible is the Word of God, and it says God created the World and everything in it in 7 days, so therefore evolution is false. I talked with a number of authors at a GenCon, and found a mix of denial, despair, and anger over their imagined plight. I was quite disappointed with Nebula Award winning author Ursula LeGuin when she complained about Cory Doctorow over a usage issue. Many of her works are very liberal, and to see that apparently old age has turned her into not just a conservative on this issue, but a wrong-headed one, is sad. Good authors are supposed to be progressive thinkers, supposed to challenge our dogma, our assumptions, and help us take the tints off the glasses through which we all view the world.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Are those my only choices? I mean, Amazon is not a monopoly, because I can buy all that stuff at other places, so that just leaves plain evil. So I guess I am forced in to answering that Amazon is just plain evil?
In the simplest terms, markets (in free economic systems) are constantly be reshaped by innovators. The book market is only becoming more efficient and all authors will have to price their wares according to demand, not some artificial pricing structure based on the authors reputation (i.e. I wouldn't value something ghost written for Hillary Clinton or Al Franken as toilet paper).
Metastasized.
Fixed that for 'ya.
Other than that -- Amazon, they sell MTB tires, I discovered today,
by way of a Google link.
Still trying to figure out why that gave me an uneasy feeling.
I may in fact concur.
> An eBook is pure profit for a Publisher and Author.
It still takes time money and effort to write, edit, and publish the bits into the various ebook formats.
And Amazon is dumping ebooks on the market by selling them below cost. I'm surprised that Amazon's shareholders are still happy with them doing this for so long, along with not bothering with actually making much in the way of profit.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Amazon is not close to being a monopoly; they sell about 30% of all books.
Another issue is that of course Amazon wants to keep authors writing new books. Without a good flow of new titles Amazon won't sell as much and their business will decline.
What Amazon does want is a larger share of the profits in the book market. A good part of this is Kindle of course. Getting customers hooked on Kindle vs physical books is a big deal.
As for further Amazon stupidity/capitalism, they sell free Lisp books for $50-$350.
Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
Take a look at Amazon's patent history. First, they kill Barnes and Noble with one of the most obvious and trivial patents ever issued, the infamous 1-click patent, and now they've patented a photo on a white background. Very nice. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/...
There are already far more books "out there" than one person could ever read. Adding to that pile is more of a marketing feat than it is filling a need (apart from the author's need to make money).
The same applies to TV programmes. We have many more channels broadcasting repeats than we get new material. In percentage terms most programmes have been broadcast before - either a day or two before, or months / year before (and in the case of Friends or some other "channel stuffing" series, are broadcast on many channels, multiple times per day and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
So what's the point in making more? Either TV or books. The amount we have seems to be sufficient for our needs, and if we ever get bored with the constant repeats on TV, we could always pick up a novel ... a 50 or 100 year old novel. AKA "a classic".
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Yes. You're right. Let's halt all cultural progress because you have all the books you'd ever want to read. Fuck new authors!
Yeah, that's right. If you write a book when you're 20 years old, it will probably *still* be solely, wholly, and completely yours, including all interpretations and derivative works, for ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS.
Even at Amazon's low wages, we (the people) have granted you 150 years to earn that living. Perhaps you would like to re-negotiate the terms on both sides of this agreement?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Cory Doctorow is quite successful and he's thus far refused to jump on the DRM band wagon. On the contrary, all his books are available under a Creative Commons license, and I think part of his success is due to this. Personally I'm much more likely to support an author who believes in freedom of information and I have happily bought some of his books to give away to friends, a while after I had read freely available versions on some electronic device.
My new KoboGlo is far better e-reader with no DRM for $20 more than the Kindle. You lose, Kindle :)
http://www.kobo.com/koboglo#ov...
The Amazon store certainly makes it easy to buy an ebook, and it has an advantage in that it's built into the Kindle. However, it is certainly possible to get ebooks from other sources. What is stopping the publishers from simply refusing to sell through Amazon? It's not *that* hard to install a book from somewhere other than Amazon on a Kindle. I mean, things are tough all over for mid-list authors, and have been for a long time. But if George RR Martin were to sell his next book exclusively through his web site, I'm sure his fans would jump through whatever minor hoops they needed to to get his book.
Amazon is responsible for createspace? Then they aren't doing those things very well. Createspace titles aren't exactly top tier offerings.
I've noticed that some sci-fi publishers on Amazon are offering ebooks that are DRM-free. It's not Amazon forcing it, the listings explicitly say it's DRM-free on behalf of the publisher's request. These ebooks don't have to be sold on Amazon. Give people an alternative and show them how to use it. You can email an ebook to a Kindle, publishers or authors could have their own site where the customer provides that email address, and there you go. Nook probably has the same thing, if it's still being sold.
I like Stross's stories, but I also like my Kindle Paperwhite. This reminds me of the television wars where innocent subscribers end up losing access to networks while the mega-corps battle each other over contracts. Here's hoping hostage-taking doesn't spill over into book distribution.
Charlie's a smart guy who knows the publishing trade inside and out, and I generally agree with him. But to keep this entirely in perspective, let's keep in mind Amazon's dispute is with Hachette, which is Charlie's publisher, with whom he has a very friendly relationship. He's not an impartial observer, even as an author.
Amazon big screw-up with the Kindle was completely missing the big takeoff of crowdfinding sites like kickstarter.com.
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/...
"Authors are choosing to crowdfund their work, and there are now options for them on which platform to use. The question is: Kickstarter, Indiegogo or Pubslush? To explore the pros and cons of those platforms, I interviewed a successful author from each of them to find out why they chose it and how they succeeded....
Amazon Kindle & DRM strategy needed to end up with authors completely dependent on the Amazon for their income. Amazon either missed the birth or takeoff of crowdfunding sites for as a new important revenue source for creative occupations.
Amazon is responsible for createspace? Then they aren't doing those things very well. Createspace titles aren't exactly top tier offerings.
Createspace is a printer, and, yes, it's owned by Amazon now. Actually, in many cases I believe it's more a distributor than a printer, and often farms out the printing to third parties.
They do offer various services to authors, but they primarily just print books from whatever PDF the author or publisher uploads.
Yeah a lot of people shop on Amazon, but they search with Google, BIng, and Yahoo.
For media content, and even commodity manufactured items like guitar pedals and toasters, I search at Amazon. It's the easiest way to get a description and picture of the item, and sometimes the reviews are even helpful.
When using a search engine, mostly what you get for media and consumer products is offers to sell it. That only adds a step in the search. Easier to just go to Amazon. Once I've found it there I can use my wishlists to remember it and camelcamelcamel to tell me if it goes on sale.
. . . I fully agree with everything he says.
Read Simon Head's latest book for the Amazon lowdown (Mindless), but recall that Jeff Bezos, besides attending those yearly meetings with the international finance and banksters doods, the Bilderbergers, was also with that famous junk bond firm, and when he went to Wall Street for more reinvestment in Amazon some years back, he claimed that they then had a global market reach, when in actuality Bezos was shipping random books to random Euro addresses and eating the damage. (Plus, there is that CIA cloud contract . . . )
Stross seems to take Hachette's side of the fight with Amazon. Some other authors see it differently:
One author/publisher's take, and another's view.
Fixed that for you.
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
I think Amazon&Kindle is great for finding authors, especially self-published authors that I'd never have found otherwise. Or even new books from authors I do like - because I'm not going to sign up to 100 newsletters to find out when the next book is.
Sure, quite a bit of self-published stuff is dross, but the 10% sample feature (usually) allows me to weed them out.
I can understand that other people may have different points of view and find the occasional typo, grammatical error or bad typesetting upsettings.
But OTOH, self-pub is often less than 50% of the price of a traditional book, and when you read ~150 books a year, that makes a difference.
He's full of it. Charles Stross is an excellent writer, whom I will seek out and read. If he's not on Kindle/Amazon at some reasonable price THEN I WON'T BUY FROM AMAZON. Its just like you say here with buying a paperback, I will buy an iPad or whatever the heck it takes to get Charlie's books.
The TRUE analogy here would be ESPN and Comcast. Every so often ESPN TELLS COMCAST how much they're paying for their channel, AND COMCAST PAYS IT. So, Charles, this is what you do, you tell Amazon what you ARE GOING TO GET for a royalty, and they will pass it on to me, or someone else will. Its just that simple.
Honestly, I don't see how Amazon has more or less leverage than any other publisher has ever had. Publisher's have a good bit of weight in the market and they pretty well dictate what up-and-coming authors are going to get (and hint, it was always crap in case you forgot Chuck). However when you're Charles Stross or Steven King, etc then you pretty much have the shoe on your foot and do the kickin'. Just like Ace is going to suck it up and pay a nice advance and a good royalty or else you'll go to Tor, so Amazon will to or else you'll go to Apple.
As time goes on this becomes less and less of a problem as well because eReaders are now pretty much a generic hardware commodity and little private walled-gardens like Apple and Kindle are really fairly silly. The whole book technology stack just isn't that daunting, In a week a guy like me can have a publisher up and running with an app that will let their customers pay for and access ebooks over the net. Yes, Amazon is big and they are slick and they'll always be an attractive marketplace, but the barriers to entry are now too low to let them rake everyone over the coals and get high monopoly rents.
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." -- Jefferson
If all the authors go out of business because they can't make a living and have to get day jobs then Amazon has no new books to sell. So Amazon has a vested interest in keeping at least some authors afloat. It may well be that Amazon can do without Stross, however, and a great many other authors. But creating an environment in which nobody bothers to write books anymore isn't in Amazon's best interest.
Methinks you meant that the other way around. I'd expect a physical to cost more than a virtual. On account of um.. paper. :)
Which is a tiny percentage of the total cost. Printing is cheap.
This. I don't know how Mr. Stross can complain that eBooks are being sold at a loss when they are ROUTINELY priced at $9.99 while the paperback is $6.99 to $7.99. Often while a book is in hardcover for $15-$18, the eBook will sell for $12-$15. If publishers aren't making a profit with those prices then they suck at business and deserve to be shuttered.
Typically those are books that are being 'self' published and Amazon is just providing a store front for the unscrupulous jerks who are repackaging public domain stuff. I don't think it's Amazon's fault their system is being abused this way.
I can, perhaps, agree with that, except apparently computer files are more expensive then paper since most eBooks are priced higher than the paperback version, and priced much higher when released at the same time as a hardcover.
Amazon fights against eBook publishers who charge usurious rates for their eBooks, with prices often higher than hardcovers... and Amazon is the bad guy here? I'm confused. And a little tired of paying $16 for an eBook when the hardcover costs $12.
He should self publish and distribute them himself if he feels "You probably want to read NEW books".
I get all my used books through Amazon and I am thrilled with that.
From Jerry Pournelle, "In my case I get a reasonable income from eBook sales, but of that, 90% comes from Amazon, and only 10% from all its competitors combined. Amazon is the 800 lb. gorilla here. I have to say that Amazon has acted very fairly with authors: three months after an eBook is posted on Amazon, they begin to pay monthly royalties, and they continue to pay monthly, not just after credible threat of lawsuit. Of course they pay it to the publisher. Now if that publisher – the one who posted it on Amazon – is me or my agent, as it is whenever our contracts allow that, the money comes directly to me. If it goes to one of the Big Five publishers, they collect the money, and collect the money, and collect the money, and after a year they send a check for the amounts collected during the period of one year to six months ago; then they wait six months to send any more. Sorry. I’m getting off the subject. But the point is that Amazon has publicly said that one of their goals in the book selling business is to keep authors happy. I do not believe that any of the Big Five publishers has that as a goal."
So it sits there. Unpublished by anyone. I'll never know if nobody likes it until I hit the go button. But I'm also scared to learn that I suck at something I enjoy doing.
I went through a similar process to yours, with agents liking (but not taking) my novel. My wife has won literary awards for works agents wouldn't take because they couldn't see her stories becoming best sellers. Not just doing well (which they admitted they would do), but becoming best sellers! The entire publisher/agent thing is a bad joke on creative talent. These self appointed gatekeepers of our culture often miss the next big thing and are rarely looking for a new, different voice despite what they claim, but rather the next celebrity ghostwritten tripe where they can make a quick buck.
I can relate to your fear of rejection...I share it...but I'd encourage you to go for it. Make sure your book is professionally edited and proofread (this is absolutely critical, and far too many self-published authors don't do this). While you're doing that, figure out a promotional strategy. For example, line up bookstores in your area for signings, create a presence on goodreads, participate in book fairs, lit fests, and conventions applicable to your genre, etc.
Don't be too disappointed if you don't sell a ton of copies (it is very hard to get noticed), and don't measure yourself on that...measure yourself on how well people enjoy your work. That is the real metric on how well you write, and how good your work is. My novel Autonomy received all kinds of good reviews (from people I've never met!), but it's still not a "best seller." Just put your edited, polished work out there and if those who read it love it, then you don't "suck at something" you enjoy. Quite the opposite.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
Just as an aside, Createspace is an author services company. Amazon already had a POD print and distribution arm (Booksurge) when they bought CreateSpace.
The authors decide how many services to buy.
Publishers are evil and powerful. They lobby, they manipulate public opinion, they get lousy IP legislation passed, and they rob authors and customers alike. Politicians are scared of publishers because they have so much power. If Amazon manages to destroy publishers and the current business model of publishers, we all win.
Let Amazon work at destroying publishers a little longer. We can still figure out what to do with Amazon after the publishers are gone.
And what are our needs? If it's merely "something to put in front of our eyes for momentary distraction", sure, there's more than enough. If it's "something that speaks to the human condition as it exists today, that evokes an aesthetic experience, that's a different matter.
Also, of course, there is the joy and reward of having created something. I hope to sell a lot of copies of my book, but even if it never sells more that 100 copies I learned a tremendous amount in the process of writing it.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Some books are classic because they stood the test of time and are still enjoyable to read and possibly have something valuable to say. Sometimes I think most books are 'classic' because people think they should have found them enjoyable and edifying, rather than actually did find them so....
I think I may never have been more disappointed than when I finally read "From the Earth to the Moon."
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
It's an irony that the once-powerful book publishing companies that lobbied for the "insane" idea of copyright will finally cease to exist soon. They were dinosaurs. Now this weird combination of Amazon (running on a basis of OSS-licensing, which uses copyright against itself), trade-secrets (their software is not available), and DRM (no need for copyright there) supersedes them.
One possible result is fewer industries have a need to maintain copyright (yay), though usually because something much worse and monopolistic replaces it. Now it's just Disney & Friends that want copyright. There's also music studios, though I expect them to go like the book publishers soon.
Science & open-source build trust from peer review. Learn systems you can trust.
This is why, even with unbridled capitalism, workers are generally paid enough to keep them alive.
Just enough.
http://www.crf-usa.org/bill-of...
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It's not just Amazon. Back about 1985, James Madison University's associated hospital got a "cancer center". By 1988, the hospital had tripled in size. By 1992, I saw cancer centers at hospitals throughout the state. By 1998, most hospitals had tripled in size.
Then the other specialist centers started popping up.
But it's also in education. It's in research. It's in banking. It's in central banking. It's in real estate. It's in investment houses. It's in computer software.
And yes, it HAS metastasized.
Let me name it for what it is: chesterton professionalism. When justice fails, then people learn that they can get paid only for doing the opposite of their job, and holding society hostage. When each group learns how to do that, then they take over thir profession, and the cancer has just spread to another organ.
It
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
Amazon was once a book seller, now they are evolving into a publisher. They just do not rely on paper, and ink. Should they become a monopoly no, but they are big and powerful because they give the customer what they want. Publishers do not. I greatly tire of paying $200-$300 dollars for a thin paperback textbook for school. Every evolution has bumps, I will gladly take the bad with the good. I am sorry for your issues, but have you thought of approaching amazon directly to sell your books? Perhaps they will cut you a better, more profitable deal. Or are you like another well known writer that does not believe in the evil electronic books, and will fade into oblivion like the T Rex one day..
The authors decide how many services to buy.
I'm guessing, "tell me if it's crap and shouldn't be published" isn't something they're willing to pay for?
Nope they have that service: https://www.createspace.com/Se...
The don't offer full on development edits which work with authors in an extended way.
The more upmarket solutions:
https://www.millcitypress.net/...
http://www.authorhouse.com/Ser...
have a more full featured version.
Look, Amazon is not a monopoly. They might be a large market share holder, but they have competition:
B&N
iBooks
Google Play Books
Kobo
Smashwords
The problem is that Amazon is doing a better job than all of them. They are selling 90% of the eBooks. I am not sure about the print books. The other companies aren't doing anything different. They are using DRM. If you buy ebooks through them, you are pretty much locked into using their app.
Amazon is making plenty of money off of indie authors and they don't need publishers. So this is not bullying. It is simply business.
Why should Amazon add books that will make them less money?
In what business does that make sense?
It is time that authors realize that publishers are no longer what they once were. Why?
1. Good editors are everywhere and cost $2000 or less.
2. Good book cover designers are everywhere and cost $500 or less.
3. Good print layout designer are $500 or less.
4. Good publicist/marketer is $500 a month ($6k a year)
5. Distribution is easy. Now distribution is done online through all the stores I just mentioned. The last remaining distribution channels that publishers have are brick and mortar stores (which are declining) and libraries, which are now including the ability to checkout eBooks, even from indie authors.
So publishers are realizing that their only value are these:
1. One time upfront cash infusion (cost of editor/cover/print layout)
2. They can send an email to their large contact list.
3. A sense of quality.
If an author builds their own contact list, then #2 is canceled out. That means all a publisher is anymore is one time service. Why would any author give up 80% to 90% of profits for nothing more than a one time service? Hire your own editor, your own cover artist and your publicist. You pay $9k and you own 100% of your work. You get %70 from all eBook sales on amazon.
The final feature, quality, is not going to last. Indie authors can write quality. Check out this: http://scififantasyreaders.com...
Pretty soon, there were be quality standards that indies follow. What will be left of the publishers? If they don't change and adapt, they will all go out of business and only their names in the books they once printed will remain.
Neither. But I expect that you might be both.
No. Just ask an indie author now making a living!
Welcome to the future that you write so much about Mr. Stross...
BTW. This is something musicians and videographers have had to deal with for over a decade now...
Yes, as the channels of distribution become free and readily accessible from anywhere in the world, YOUR monopoly of publishing houses is no longer necessary. And yes, you might have to get a (better) paying job as well as write books.
"You have to go the heart of the WalMart." (It's behind the plasma screen television).
Season Eight - Episode Nine of South Park
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
Not all authors will agree with that, having someone take care of the business while a writer focuses on writing has value.
XML is a known as a key material required to create SMD: Software of Mass Destruction
The good thing about digital distrubution is its a lot cheeper hard copyies and its marker any one can jump into
..when Amazon is both ?
>>Amazon wants authors to price their ebooks at $0.99, so many do, and these are the ones that are sold
Its not AMAZON that wants authors to price their ebooks at $.99 - its Amazon's CUSTOMERS who want that.
Take me for example. I'll take a $.99 flyer on an unknown author with an intriguing plot summary. My current modus operandi is to buy books from 5-10 authors at a time, take my time enjoying the ones that are actually readable, and then come back for more. If I was paying more than $3 a book, I'd be considerably more careful regarding what and how often I was buying. Also, getting burnt by too great a percentage of not-ready-for-primetime authors would, without a doubt, stifle this habit, dim my general regard for Amazon, and probably send me back to browsing inventory in book stores.
It's hard to take this comment as anything other than mild trolling, even if it's unintentional.
Let an author release first book in public domain. If readers really like that work, there will be enough fans to fund the next work which can again be released in public domain (as it has already been paid for).
Had this model been an ancient and well established old model of publishing all works of art there was never a need of IP or any domain other than public domain.
Publishers that can't make money don't sign authors. Authors that can't get published get day jobs and you never see their books. THat leaves only old stuff, and absolutely nothing new, and no motivation for authors to write anything but cheezy "womens pxxn" setting the bar so low we'll become a nation of complete and total dumasses...
One pint for being a damned good SF author whose ink-on-paper books I've enjoyed.
Second pint for being a clear thinker and vocal speaker on this - and many other - points.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"