
What Would Happen if Amazon Ruled Publishing? - slaterhearst
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/10/what-would-happen-if-amazon-ruled-publishing/246854/#.Tp2Tm7PKn4Y.hackernews
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mechanical_fish
_If Amazon consolidates its power in the publishing industry, what would
become of a book criticizing Amazon?_

It would be published as a simple PDF or mobile-friendly ebook format on the
open web. Or, you know, just blogged.

Or sold as an app on iOS and Android.

Or sold by Pragmatic Publishers, or O'Reilly, or any of the other similar
small publishers that will soon be all over the landscape, particularly in the
all-electronic publishing era.

Or sold by Barnes and Noble. Does anybody remember Barnes and Noble?

Who knows, maybe Facebook or Google will start an e-publishing arm. Wouldn't
be too difficult.

One shouldn't minimize Amazon's mighty marketing power, or their mighty
infrastructure, or their customer goodwill, or their good hardware, or the
extent to which they have a good eye in a market where everyone else is blind.
And these things are going to continue to give them a mighty share of the
publishing industry, because writers and vendors go where the money is. But
they don't have a monopoly, and I don't see how they have an incipient
monopoly, because publishing text is so easy that it literally can't be
stopped by _major governments_.

~~~
naner
Or sold on Amazon.com:

[http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Giant-Machine-Amazon-com-
Story/...](http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Giant-Machine-Amazon-com-
Story/dp/145153082X/)

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mc32
Technically it would be their channel to control, just as Wal*Mart controls
what inventory it carries (in music, for example).

Free speech would not apply as it's not government --but PR would suffer if
they did restrict content, I think.

Still, I think if they decided to get into the business of gatekeeper, the gov
(and the public) would want to investigate their actions --whether it would be
legally actionable I have no idea. I think it would be foolish of them to go
in that direction --it would be an opportunity for a smaller player to
establish themselves as the non-paternalistic alternative.

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sixtofour
If Amazon dominates publishing, to the point of driving a noticeable number of
publishers out of business, we'll have fewer choices in books. There will be
more titles, and we'll find less worth reading.

Amazon sells an uncountable number of products because other companies make
those products. Amazon _cannot_ make all those products themselves.

Similarly, Amazon _cannot_ shepherd within an order of magnitude the same
number of more or less worthwhile books into the market as current publishers
are doing today.

"Self publish yadda yadda whatever." Yes, Amazon will offload much of the
production of books to the authors. And yes, Amazon can just say "yes" and
print any book on demand. Paradoxically, I have a lot of books _actually
available to me_ because publishers have acted as gatekeepers/curators. I
can't possibly find as many mostly-self-published printed on demand or kindle
Amazon books worth my attention as I can currently by choosing from the pre-
filtered publisher-produced books of now.

</old man>

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danmaz74
When digital publishing and DRM technologies will become mainstream and
standardized enough, I guess that the industry will have to agree on an open
standard for e-books - or risk that governments will impose one by law.

The latter is what I think will - and in my opinion should - happen if Amazon
and/or Apple ended up in a monopolistic/duopolistic position with their
ebook/pad gadgets while keeping a strict control over what can be sold there.
Which is probably what Amazon is trying to do, but in the long run I don't
think that would be sustainable (either by market forces or government
intervention).

So for publishers the long term real issue is most likely to be how to add
value as (mostly) digital publishers, but not how to survive against a
monopoly.

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ph0rque
_What are the services that publishers provide that we really value? ... Is it
thoughtful editing and careful editing? Maybe, but many people accustomed to
reading lightly-edited posts on the web may think that this sort of production
is overvalued._

This gives me an idea: use the readers as editors. For every mistake found,
offer $0.X rebate off their next book by the author.

~~~
ktf
This is an interesting idea, but many people don't realize that editing a book
is more than just "finding mistakes." That's a proof reader's job. A good
developmental editor helps shape a book from the ground up, and can make a
_significant_ impact on the final product.

(Disclaimer: I edit books for a living.)

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jisaacstone
The article fails to answer its own question. It just does a bit of hand-
waving and points at the apple app store.

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nobody314159
They wouldn't care

If it sells they make money - laugh at that suckers!

If it doesn't sell then nobody read it.

As some heavy metal band said about their albums being burned in the bible
belt - "Those sales still count for the charts"!

