Fear and Loathing in NYC: Book Publishers Anxious About Amazon's Plans

Posted on October 17, 2011

The New York Times has an interesting article about Amazon.com's foray into book publishing. The upshot? Publishers are apparently pretty freaked out by Amazon's latest venture which now competes directly with traditional book publishers. The new flagship line of books is being run by Laurence Kirshbaum, but it's all pretty hush-hush. Amazon won't say how many editors it has. The Times says it will publish 122 books in physical and ebook format, and that it its aggressively courting some top authors who are now with traditional publishers.

Most agents and publishers wouldn't speak on the record for the piece, but all expressed fear and loathing of Amazon's latest venture. One who would speak on the record was agent and ebook publisher Richard Curtis, who said: "Everyone's afraid of Amazon. If you're a bookstore, Amazon has been in competition with you for some time. If you're a publisher, one day you wake up and Amazon is competing with you too. And if you’re an agent, Amazon may be stealing your lunch because it is offering authors the opportunity to publish directly and cut you out. It's an old strategy: divide and conquer."

Authors who publish with Amazon.com get direct access to Nielson's BookScan -- they can see exactly how many books they sold in Los Angeles or Dallas. Amazon facilitates interaction with readers, as well.

So, why all the hostility between Amazon and the publishers? We have a theory. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was furious when publishers began dictating the prices of ebooks. Amazon.com always had control over pricing and there was quite a battle over the issue. The publishers won that round. Now Amazon is directly going after their top authors and becoming a publisher, effectively cutting them out of the traditional book distribution chain. Coincidence?