Amazon
was in the news last week, and not in a good way for traditionally-published
authors.
Both
Publishers’ Weekly in the USA and The Bookseller in the UK reported concerns
about Amazon’s decision to let ‘third parties’ control their ‘buy box’ for
brand new books.
Rather
than recap all the arguments, here are a couple of links:
The
issues were detailed last month in an article by Brooke Warner in the
Huffington Post:
Amazon’s
decision, taken on March 1st according to Ms Warner, will allow
discount retailers to become the highest-profile sellers of
mint-condition books on Amazon, potentially under-cutting publishers’ list prices
by considerable margins.
For
writers with traditional publishing deals, the crux of the matter is that these
third-party sales don’t generate royalties. Amazon’s decision could therefore hit
already low author earnings.
As the Society of
Authors put it, ‘The SoA joins the Authors Guild of America in expressing our
concerns that traditional sales – the ones that pay authors a royalty – would
be heavily undermined by such a change, significantly damaging the incomes of
publishers, booksellers and authors.’
A
lot of last week’s discussion focused on how – and how quickly – discount
retailers are getting hold of cheap new books, including via bulk ‘special
sales’ from publishers.
What
struck me, too, was Amazon’s reply to the Society of Authors, as reported in
The Bookseller. In it Amazon made clear that for them, the customer is king.
Amazon’s
attitude shouldn’t surprise us. They’re in business to sell stuff online, which
is all about stimulating and satisfying demand. The needs of the supply side – in
this case the people who write stories and the publishers who turn them into
products – don’t really enter the picture.
This
is true in other retail supply chains, too. Take supermarkets, for example, which
forced down the price of milk below the cost of production for many small dairy
farmers, driving them out of business.
As
Nicola Morgan – among many others – has pointed out, it’s the reading public’s
decision to buy from Amazon rather than book shops which makes these shocks
possible.
There
are, of course, important differences between Amazon and supermarkets, not
least Amazon’s ability to put the smallest producer – the individual – in touch
with millions of potential customers: a kind of global, e-version of the good
old days when (here in rural Devon at least) you could walk to a local farm and
buy a pint of milk at the kitchen door. Cut out the shop. Cut out the supermarket.
Win-win. Let’s all be indie authors.
So
why not self-publish on Kindle? Especially now Amazon’s reach is so great? For
me, it’s still a matter of quality control.
After
years spent learning the craft, I know my writing is much, much better for
having to meet the professional standards set by a highly-experienced editor
and the publishing team behind her. With Walker, I’ve done a structural edit, a
line edit & now I’m waiting for copy edits. Yes it’s taking forever; yes
it’s worth the wait.
On
the other hand, I don’t think it’s fair or accurate to call Amazon’s indie
sector ‘the Great Slushpile’ as some people do. Many readers are huge fans of indie
authors, with price – rather than the reputation of publishers – reportedly the
major driver behind their buying decisions.
I
also think we have to be cautious about claims that e-books sales have peaked
here in Britain. The Bookseller was adamant that the UK Publishers’ Association
had ignored swathes of e-sales when it announced the latest data last month.
Had all e-books been included, the UK landscape for fiction would have looked very
different from the one painted by the PA’s annual report, and recycled by
several newspapers, The Guardian included.
Now
I promise I’m not advocating that e-books should replace physical books, any more
than I welcome Amazon wiping out book shops. Nor is apathy the right response when
the decisions of a corporate behemoth threaten livelihoods. But, equally, we
can’t ignore the seismic shifts that have already taken place in the world of
books, and will continue to happen.
In
order to survive (and maybe even thrive) I believe all authors have to learn to ride
the Amazon tiger. In this regard, it seems to me that indie authors can teach
the traditional sector an awful lot about digital marketing, reader magnets,
Amazon metadata, Kindle promotions etc. etc.
In
addition, anyone with a traditional publishing contract needs to get a grip on
clauses which (even if unintentionally) could result in our lovingly-crafted,
meticulously-edited books being flogged off on Amazon by retailers who owe us
nothing.
Twitter:
@HouseRowena
4 comments:
I'd missed this news and I AM shocked. They don't exactly support authors, do they?
Indeed not. We live in interesting times.
Interesting, if you have a new book ready to submit it really is getting difficult to know whether to try traditional publishers or self publish, now.
I agree! The boundaries between the two seem to blur more and more. Good luck with taking your decision.
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