Of all the articles I have on the subject this is the best so far. Thanks Moira. Authors, Readers, Publishers and Retailers some explosive chemistry here!
Moira Allen is the editor of Writing-World.com (http://www.writing-world.com) and the author of more than 350 published articles. Her books on writing include Starting Your Career as a Freelance Writer, The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches and Proposals, and Writing to Win: The Colossal Guide to Writing Contests.
Coffee on the Deck
by Moira Allen
by Moira Allen
August 21, 2014:
The publishing world is abuzz about the ongoing, and escalating, battle between Amazon.com and Hatchette Publishing. Gallons of ink have already been shed in describing the war between these giants, so I'll sum it up in a very small nutshell: Amazon wants to keep e-book prices low and Hachette wants to keep them high. Sounds simple, no? Motivation is even simpler: Amazon wants to keep prices low because, they say, lower prices mean more sales, which means more money. Hatchette believes that higher prices mean more money. It becomes clear rather quickly that the operative term is "more money."
Amazon recently ignited a fresh furor by sending an e-mail to its Kindle authors, urging them to write to Hatchette to express their support of Amazon's position (not exactly a step I'd describe as "keeping authors out of the middle of the conflict"). A coalition of some 900, mostly bestselling authors countered by publishing a letter in the New York Times "urging [Amazon] to stop using them as pawns in the negotiation."
These latest moves are designed to place a burden directly on authors (and readers) to take sides in the dispute. Now, when someone asks you to take a side, the first question you're likely to ask is which side to take? Generally, you want to know who the good guys are. Most of us (at least in Western culture) are conditioned to believe that there is a "good side" and a "bad side" to most disputes -- and that even if we try to see "both" sides, there's still a right and wrong. We believe that evil is forever attempting to defeat good, but that light will prevail and the Ring will be destroyed and... Oh, wait, that's another story.
How do we identify the "good guys" in a battle like this? Each side has spouted volumes about the threats the other poses to literature, ideas, openness, free trade, and a host of other values we writers hold dear. Can we choose based on size? Amazon's revenues in 2013 were $74.5B (yes, as in "billion"). It's a little harder to track down revenues for Hatchette, the world's fourth largest publishing company, so let's go with its parent company, Lagardère: Roughly $9.6B (if I'm translating euros to dollars correctly).
For writers who may be weighing decisions about groceries vs. gas, it may be a bit difficult to feel much sympathy for either side -- which is, no doubt, why both sides, instead, keep asking us to feel sympathy for the authors who are "caught in the middle." Neither side, one notes, is actually alleviating those authors' pain by yielding their position; they just keep trying to remind US how much the "other guys" are hurting authors. So perhaps we should side with the authors themselves? 900 authors purchased an ad in the New York Times (which you can read at http://www.authorsunited.net/) to tell the world that they "weren't taking sides" in the dispute -- but were really, really upset with Amazon! ("Not taking sides" apparently means something different to these authors...)
So let's cut to the chase. The motivation on both sides is money, money, and more money. Amazon is not in the business of selling books; it is in the business of making money. Selling books happens to be one way of doing so. Hatchette publishes books, not because they have warm, fuzzy feelings toward authors, but because they, too, are in the business of making money. Each side sees the other as interfering in that goal. This isn't Mordor vs. the White Tower; this is Mordor vs. Isengard.
While both sides want us to believe that, unlike the other guy, they are the author's friend, let's get real: neither company is the author's friend. Big publishers have never been the author's friend. Authors are simply grist for the publisher's money mill. Royalties have not increased, percentage-wise, in decades. Booksellers are not the author's friend either; authors simply produce the product that puts money in the bookseller's coffers. But more to the point, neither side are the reader's friend either. Readers are the ones who actually provide the money so deeply beloved by publishers and booksellers, and readers are as much the victims of this conflict as authors.
Hence, while it's tempting to ask who's the "good guy" (or "bad guy") in this dispute, it's important to remember that this is a dispute between two gigantic companies with one common goal: To extract as much money as possible from your pocket. Amazon wants to get more of your dollars by selling more books, and believes that lower-priced books are the way to do that. Hatchette wants to get more of your dollars by charging a higher price for each book you buy. It's a simple clash of business models.
With that in mind, it's time to move the discussion away from what is "right" and "just" and "good" in the world of publishing and selling books. There has been a lot of blather about what is or is not the "American way," or "fair," or "proper" about how Company A should sell the books of Company B. We've been told that Amazon has a "responsibility" to make all books by all authors available to all readers at reduced prices. Um, since when?
Discounts are nice. They are not, however, a moral imperative. They are simply a device that has been used to attract customers since, perhaps, the first cavepreneur opened his skins-and-flints emporium. They serve the seller, not the buyer, and they are not a "right." Any store has the right to choose what merchandise it will or will not sell, and for how much. If you own a shoe store, you're under no obligation, moral or otherwise, to offer the merchandise of every shoe manufacturer in the country, or to offer identical discounts on every item in your store. You have the right to pick and choose what you sell and how much you sell it for. Conversely, if you are a shoe manufacturer, you have the right to set whatever price you choose for your products.
Let's remember that Hatchette is a manufacturer and Amazon is a store. Both are in the business of making money. Amazon does so by, typically, offering deep discounts on books. (Ironically, this practice originally caused authors and publishers to squawk in protest, fearful that it would ruin their profits -- and now they are squawking when their products are not discounted!) Hatchette does so by setting high prices (and, also ironically, now complaining that Amazon is refusing to discount the high prices that they, Hatchette, set in the first place!). While neither side may be "right," each side has the right to choose its own business model. There's no moral high ground that makes deep discounts, overnight delivery, or pre-order-ability a "right" for either the consumer or the author. These are conveniences, nothing more.
The problem is that the giants are currently at something of a stalemate. Hence, both are now trying to appeal to the emotions of writers and readers, hoping that they can win their battle in the arena of public opinion. Each wants to convince you that they care more about you (as writer or reader) than the opponent. So as a writer (or reader), ask yourself: How might a company really show that it cares more about you than about your money? Has it done so?
And then, do yourself a favor and simply stay out of the crossfire. Battles between giants tend to be hazardous to the ordinary folks caught in the middle. But this, too, shall pass, and will probably accomplish very little actual change -- and in a few years will seem downright silly. So rather than yielding to the urgings of Amazon or Authors United to choose sides, choose instead to make your writing and reading decisions based on what is best for you. Because of all the participants, you can bet you're the only one who actually cares about that!
Copyright © 2014 Moira Allen
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