Comments on: All your base are belong to AMAZON

By: Pre-BEA Lazy Post: Round-Up Style | Booksquare

Pre-BEA Lazy Post: Round-Up Style | Booksquare — Tue, 26 May 2009 18:07:50 +0000

[...] All Your Bases Are Belong to Amazon: I never weighed in on the Amazon Encore project, but many smart folks did. I’ve linked to Eoin Purcell’s analysis above. Encore is not Amazon’s first foray into the publishing business; I don’t believe it is Amazon’s intention to enter the publishing game completely (ah, the irony of trying to get print distribution in the stores they are trampling!), but to offer exclusive content to extend their brand? Makes perfect sense. [...]

By: Gerard Cunningham

Gerard Cunningham — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:20:01 +0000

Looks like 30% isn’t just an offer to bloggers, it’s also the margin on offer to newspapers who get involved with Kindle.

See http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2009/05/kindle_just_another_way_for_papers_to_lo.php

By: Amazon Encore: Is this a publishing game-changer? | The Creative Penn

Amazon Encore: Is this a publishing game-changer? | The Creative Penn — Mon, 18 May 2009 11:07:42 +0000

[...] Eoin Purcell examines the deal in detail [...]

By: AmazonEncore Is Amazon’s First Step Toward Dominating Publishing | Dear Author: Romance Novel Reviews, Industry News, and Commentary

Sun, 17 May 2009 10:01:15 +0000

[...] viewed Amazon’s debut on the publishing stage inevitable as well. Eoin Purcell’s wryly titled article “All Your Base Are Belong to Amazon” notes that the competitive advantage Amazon has [...]

By: eoinpurcell

eoinpurcell — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:17:17 +0000

For authors I think this sure offers some incentives, though it’s hard to know whether the terms will be favourable even with an agent!

Depending on the type of data collected by amazon and I strongly suspect they have the right kind as Kat points out, they will have good info on who would be a better risk that most individual publishers do!

The question of how good this is for authors will become very relevant when the only choice is amazon in ten, twenty or thirty years time!

By: Quick link: Eoin Purcell on Authonomy and Encore « Never Later

Quick link: Eoin Purcell on Authonomy and Encore « Never Later — Fri, 15 May 2009 22:03:01 +0000

[...] All your base are belong to AMAZON | Eoin Purcell’s Blog [...]

By: Argonaut

Argonaut — Fri, 15 May 2009 19:05:16 +0000

Their first author is using a reputable agent. I googled her, Kevan Lyon, formerly of the Dijkstra Agency and now on her own, so I hope they’ve achieved terms similar to what traditional publishers would offer.

As far as publishing the unpublished – this can only be good for authors, one more competitor in the business. Though if they published an unpublished author they wouldn’t have the marketing data they have for the self published and it would be more of a gamble.

By: Kat Meyer

Kat Meyer — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:54:58 +0000

Yup – that data is incredibly valuable, and Amazon is holding onto it very very tightly. They know who the customers are, what they are reading, and what they might want to read…sort of stuff that comes in handy when you are either producing content or picking it up cheaply from bloggers. Just as they have with publishers, Amazon is dangling a carrot in front of bloggers-the promise of quick cash and wider distribution — but they’re not being entirely clear and/or forthcoming about what they’re asking for in return. The “rights granted” clause of the Amazon Blog contract is murky at best. And, looking at their history, I’d wager they will be looking to exploit everything they can get away with out of bloggers and authors.
Great post, btw.

By: eoinpurcell

eoinpurcell — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:25:08 +0000

Hey Argonaut,

I think if you look at the program as it stands you are right on the cherry-picking, but I suspect going forward this will move to books that have been previously unpublished, it is a fairly logical step.

As to the POD element the key factor there will be whether the capital employed to print a full scale print-run is too high and the return on that capital is too low to warrant using POD, which although it delivers a higher price per unit has the merit of reducing the capital employed in a given project and keep stock to a minimum, in a well managed supply chain that can yield significant savings. Given that they own the pod presses, I wouldn’t rule out Amazon’s ability to profit more from POD than a traditional print in bulk model!

That said, if the trade orders are very high then clearly an traditional run would be sensible! There is a part of me though that doesn’t see that happening (at least for the first title).

The value of the sales and marketing data that Amazon is gather by the way is truly very valuable. It would be interesting to see the number behind this decision and get a sense of what other books might be on their horizon.

Eoin

By: Argonaut

Argonaut — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:17:17 +0000

Cherry picking, yes, but from books that other publishers had a chance to pick up but didn’t for whatever reason. The difference is that the initial cost (preparation, printing) still lays with the self published author, but amazon is able to – at no cost to itself – gather marketing data from the books sales and reviews before they have to spend a penny on the book. I don’t think this is going to be POD either, because amazon stated they are teaming with a distributor to have the books in bookstores. Plus, POD is still more expensive than mass producing books.