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This is a guest post by Nisar Ahmad, a digital marketing expert for Media Hicon. As you know, I put most of the blame for the current condition of the publishing world on traditional publishers, whose policies Amazon has cleverly used to its advantage. Nisar instead makes the case for the view that several Amazon policies aim at conquering the world of publishing – and more. I hope you enjoy reading this counterposition to my own.
How Amazon Plans to Conquer the World of Publishing
Image: Storyblocks.com
Deny Data to Suppliers
The information that Amazon gathers from across its platform gives it influence over its book providers. However, by refusing to share that data with the very people who generate it, Amazon gains an unfavorable lead over any potential competitor—a lead so overwhelming that, save for government intercession, there is little chance of significant rivalry from anybody, regardless of whether they be publishers, distributors, or book shops.
Focus on Advertising Services
Amazon offers two different kinds of services to writers, distributors, and book shops. The first service is access to its online book shop. However, it also makes it almost impossible to sell on its platform unless you are also willing to spend your advertising budget on Amazon. This shifts the focus from content creation to advertising – a process all writers know too well.
Amazon Distributor Agreements
Amazon forces various arrangements on its sellers. The aim seems to be threefold, as Amazon expects distributors :
- To offer it comparable or better monetary terms and conditions as those offered to any competing wholesalers.
- Inform Amazon about the terms offered to its competitors.
- Limit the distributors’ price-setting options so that Amazon offers its shoppers the best prices.
Amazon Uses Loss-Making Pricing to Harm Competition
For more than twenty years, Amazon has used books as a guinea pig to bait buyers to its site, gather information, and capture an expanding piece of the overall industry. Regardless of everything else that has happened in the bookselling world, Amazon has captured the online book market by selling books at lower-than-cost prices to advance and sell its Kindle.
Democracy
The fact that Amazon holds an outsized portion of the U.S. market enables it to meddle in the free progression of data, thoughts, and writing. The American book distributing industry is – and consistently has been – necessary to democracy and Western values. Writers, distributors, and book shops have added to popular discourse. It is expected that a lot more will arise and flourish to the advantage of the general population. However, Amazon can now prevent that from happening.
Having said that, Amazon is also the one who opened up the book market to any writers who couldn’t get published by traditional publishers. In that sense, Amazon has also been a force for democracy by giving Indie authors an outlet and dispensing by traditional gatekeepers.
Success – at a Price
Amazon is the most popular eCommerce site. It sells a mind-boggling range of products, from books to a Digital Pressure Cooker. However, its success also gives it the ability to set the rules.
What if Amazon chooses to pay writers simply by the page? Or that readers never actually own the books they have bought; they simply rent it for as long as they possess a Kindle device? With Amazon ruling the eCommerce world, innovations like these could soon become the new norm, strengthening its stranglehold on the economy and letting it set the rules for everyone.
Nicholas C. Rossis 
Thank you for this! The situation does not seem to be ideal. But, on the other hand, there are so many proud and happy authors who could get published despite the rejections from traditional publishers. We all must hope sound reason and just legal regulation will make the publishing world even better.
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My feelings exactly!
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There are problems with both Amazon and trad publishers. Amazon treats its authors badly.(They seem to forget they started as a book seller!)
Their returns policy deprives authors of their payment. What other book seller allows you to return a book ( read or unread) in exchange for another, and then claws the money back from the author? This has recently been exposed with Audible (whom Amazon owns). If you are interested, check out Audiblegate on Google. But the same policy that has had the Audible publishers in uproar has been going on at Amazon Books for years.
Having said that, traditional publishers are not free of criticism. They tend to look for profit first. So if you are an unknown, unless your book is exceptional, and I don’t mean just very good, or superb, they aren’t likely to be interested. Look at how many ‘celebrities ‘ have traditionally published books. (And I wonder just how many have sat down at a computer and written every one of those words. How many use a ghost writer and put their name to the book?) If you are a well-known established writer, you can get a traditional publishing deal.
Not many traditional publishers are willing to take a risk with an unknown. And as for marketing, they tend to heavily push these people, not the new author who has been lucky enough to land a deal with them.
The biggest problem is with Amazon’s virtual monopoly. They are too big. That gives them the opportunity to not play nice with their authors. And trad publishers , too are too obsessed with profits.
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Well said, Viv! It feels the whole industry is being run by accountants – and they have brought the house down…
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I thought they had already conquered the world of publishing. Certainly as far as digital and audio books are concerned. Or did I miss something? Whether that is a bad thing for authors or not, it seems to me to be far too late to do anything about it now.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I don’t know about that. We’ll see what the future holds, I guess!
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None of this surprises me. Amazon is a dispassionate, avaricious behemoth, and I abhor what it does and how it has achieved its position of market dominance. Notwithstanding any possible government action to force it to pay a commensurate level of tax [unlikely], which wouldn’t have any direct bearing upon its consumers, the only power lies in the hands of those consumers, and the longer they see low prices as necessary, and ignore the obvious consequences, the longer Amazon will rule the world. Cheers, Jon.
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It’s a good point. But I don’t abhor Amazon or what it’s done, as it’s also got plenty of good points. Then again, you already know my position on it 🙂
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I’m an old hippy: I just want everything to be free 😉
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😀
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Reblogged this on Wilfred Books and commented:
Amazon’s prices are cheap: this has consequences.
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As a self-published author I struggle ethically with Amazon. In an ideal world I would be traditionally published and not have to worry about how much I loathe its “taking over the world” approach. A self-published friend of mine convinced me to take their free 5-day advertising challenge and I have had nothing but frustration with it as it reinforces this whole monopoly idea. The idea that authors are giving them thousands of dollars of month to sell books that essentially Amazon owns does not sit well with me…It’s a win-win for Amazon but not necessarily for anyone else, especially the independent bookstores.
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You’re right, it’s getting exceedingly easy to publish a book and exceedingly hard to sell it. In fact, the two are related…
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I have my ups and downs with Amazon but on the whole it is a lifeline for independent and small publisher authors so I try not to complain. Dominance in an industry isn’t ideal and here in South Africa we have competition laws to help prevent it.
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Agreed. I think that’s what Nasir is trying to say; that it’s time the state intervened.
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And I’m getting exceedingly frustrated with the process 😉
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Thank you for this thought-provoking discussion.
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So glad you enjoyed it, Liz 🙂
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This sounds kind of scary. I especially don’t like the idea of Amazon customers not getting to actually own the books they bought fair and square, but just rent them. If that idea actually happens, wouldn’t that hurt the bookstore part of Amazon? Why would people want to pay for books that they can’t own officially, when they could just read books they don’t own for free, from the library?
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I guess it’s just like buying a library subscription. We may be looking at the commoditization of books.
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Would that have a negative affect on an authors royalties?
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I suspect it may lead to a similar situation to the music industry, where the gap between small and big bands has grown because of subscription services.
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Shit… My writing career is in the embryonic stage. I guess its growth may end up a little stunted🍳
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Reblogged this on wordrefiner.
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This is a great post. It gives us a glimpse to the power of Amazon when it comes to publishing. While Amazon has open doors for many indie offers, it has also caused doors to slam shut forever for bookstore chains. I’m going to share this great info with my followers. Thanks.
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Thank you so much, Don! I appreciate it 🙂
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My pleasure
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this great post from Nisar Ahmad via Nicholas Rossis’ blog with the topic: How Amazon Plans to Conquer the World of Publishing
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The whole situation with big Tech is frightening. They WILL rule the world.
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Sometimes it feels like they already do. Then again, compared to some of the alternatives, maybe that’s not such a bad thing lol
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Once upon a time, if I remember correctly, here in the UK there used to bae a thing called ‘The Monopolies Commission’ that made sure there was fair competition and no one company could take over everything. I don’t know if it still exists, but if it does it’s doing a very poor job.
Monopolies are a BAD THING, and if Amazon hasn’t quite got a monopoly, it’s as near as damn it to one.
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We have something similar in Greece. It’s about as efficient as its UK equivalent.
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It’s always good to gain multiple perspectives. Like most things in life, I can see both sides of the coin.
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Same here! Makes it hard, doesn’t it? 🙂
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I think it’s a lot easier to navigate our way through life when we’re not so opinionated and can see other viewpoints besides ours. Look at all the dissension caused by close-minded people regarding politics.
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Truer words…
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This is a fascinating article, thank you! As I work for a small indie publisher, I see the benefits and hazards of Amazon’s ability to set all the rules. I echo many of the wishes for some intervention to even the playing field.
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Thank you, Ariel! I don’t envy government agents whose job is to oversee this. Striking the right balance between encouraging competition without killing golden geese can be hard. Then again, the tiny tax amounts some of these tech giants pay surely can’t endear them to regulators…
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Sounds like a monopoly.
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Not yet but close enough!
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Well…as long as I get paid I don’t care about the rest
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That’s one way of looking at it, for sure!
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Well…is there another way perhaps maybe I’m looking at it the wrong money way.
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Great post thank you for sharing
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Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
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