F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction Author

Hachette

Hachette v. Amazon

by

Take a Look in the Mirror. In fact Take a Picture, So You'll REMEMBER. By http://www.flickr.com/photos/byflickr/ By Byflickr, Rohan Kar(http://www.flickr.com/photos/byflickr/2584948850/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Take a Look in the Mirror. Take a Picture, So You’ll REMEMBER. By http://www.flickr.com/photos/byflickr/ By flickr, Rohan Kar (http://www.flickr.com/photos/byflickr/2584948850/) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Well, I’m sure this’ll make me extra popular, but I find this annoyance and anger with Amazon amusing.

Really, we’re dumping on Amazon?

Aren’t we also ignoring all the ills of the Traditional Publishing world, with stuff like, oh, yeah: price fixing.

Let me remind you who the “Big Five” were (are), in this little pricing fixing scenario:

Simon & Schuster.

HarperCollins.

Penguin.

Macmillan.

Oh, yeah, and Hachette Book Group.

Hachette.

And, hmmm, let’s see what else does Trad Publishing do that can be taken issue with?

Not helping authors with promotion and marketing.

Less author-friendly contracts (. e.g., sucky terms, grabbing as many of an authors rights as possible, and royalties).

Not including author input on covers.

Making authors feel like we are there only for them, instead of a more teamwork approach.

Not growing authors anymore in favor of a bean counting approach.

Archaic business model.

How they drag their feet in paying authors.

Giving away half your book’s value up front…and the returns, oh. my God, the returns!

In short, there ain’t no saints in this business. This link lays out some other issues. And Bob Mayer’s posts are always elucidating.

All huge companies do what huge companies do, and that is…they do what benefits huge companies. Period. Most times it makes them look “okay,” and they fly under the radar, but periodically, they all do something that gets them in hot water, and they “auger in,” as the flying analogy goes, and crash and burn in the media.

And everyone loves to pick on Amazon. Especially bookstores.

I’m not saying that I agree with what Amazon is doing—I don’t—but to string em up like this is just making for great sound bites and videos. The public has a short memory.

Again, see 2012 price fixing.

 

Related articles