ROBUST discussion

http://davidgaughran.wordpress.com/20...

Almost all the press about the Amazon/Hatchette battle has been anti-Amazon. Here's David Gaughran with a more neutral perspective.

I don't know what to think, but you guys do.

Note -- while Gaughran is on my Facebook friend list, we are not actually friends. I think I am just one of those people he took a friend request from for business reasons, but I like his stuff, so I promote it anyway.

I could feel David's caution within this article, Matt. I applaud the effort.

No media corporation, whoever they are, has clean fingernails when it comes to dirt under their marketing practices. Hatchette is no small company in and of itself. They strive to make money, and if they can gut a lawyer at some stone alter to have things go their way, they would do so in a heartbeat.

Amazon, however, is a prime example of a phrase that's old, but is never wrong. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Amazon has gained a significant amount of power thanks to some Judge who couldn't see through the bullshit.

Amazon isn't just punishing Hatchette, but all of those authors who are with that company. The point is, they're punishing a supplier. When that happens, only one segment of our society truly suffers. The customers, who have to pay for whatever greedy tug of war settles at, in the end. Any of those costs are always handed off to the customer.

Amazon is the nightmare here. They happily started this mess because they hate the agency business model. So be it. I can hate them right back. The moment Amazon passes any of that battle towards our own publishing agreement, as I'm one of the little guys at the bottom of the hill, practically microscopic, then I'm out of there.

I know it will come down towards us Indies, because whenever shit hits the fan, it always flows downhill. Guess where we are? Yup, at the bottom of that hill.

I think Daniel has it. Amazon has a track record of arbitrary actions to force publishers and others to do things their way. But the end-game here will be felt in your pocket. If Amazon "beats" the Big Five, they won't need the indies as an undercut in a price war any more, and you will soon feel it in your percentage of the take, in what prominence Amazon gives to indie books, and so on. Remember this: Amazon does not publish indie books from any ideological conviction, but as a tool in quite unrelated corporate strategies.

I had high hopes for Nook vs Kindle, but it hasn't happened. The opposite in fact.

Kobo was situated to take on the Kindle, but they've stuttered and possibly failed.

However, it's well known that every dog has it's day. Amazon will not reign forever.