Amazon Isn't Killing Writing, the Market Is

An anonymous reader writes: Amazon has been struggling for price control of the book and ebook markets for years, battling publicly and privately with publishers while making a lot of authors nervous. With yesterday's announcement of "Kindle Unlimited," a Netflix-like ebook subscription service, Amazon is reaching their endgame in disrupting the book-selling business. But there are other companies doing the same thing, and an article at TechCrunch makes the case that it's the general market, rather than any company in particular, that's making it harder for authors to earn a living. "Driving the prices lower isn't likely to expand the market of readers, since book prices don't seem to be the deciding factor on whether someone reads a book (time is). But those lower prices directly shrink the incomes of authors, who lack any other means of translating their sales into additional revenue. That's why I don't think the big revolution for writers and other content producers will come from Amazon, but rather from startups like Patreon, which allow producers to build audiences directly and develop their own direct subscription model with their most fervent fans."

Comments

Re:Again!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah yes, that tragic story was detailed in the Spielberg classic, "Schindler's Lift".

Re:Yep, how the music industry was killed...

[Anonymous Coward]

Well clearly, their first priority should be evolving photosynthetic capability.

protesting downmods

[globaljustin]

some crooked fsker went and downmodded all my responses

***i protest these downmods b/c they are not deserved***

my posts have always been on topic, IMHO interesting, and at least involves direct clash of ideas

I WAS DOWNMODDED FOR PERSONAL/POLITICAL REASONS NOT BECAUSE OF MY IDEAS BEING WRONG

cowards show yourselves, and explain as an AC or GTFO