Wild Speculation Thread... Hachette, Amazon, Simon and Schuster

[meg_evonne]

So the Hachette vs Amazon war continues. I suspect you are all on up on that from a sidelines type of view point. basically, Hachette books are not being carried for immediate shipping during the contract negotiations. Reportedly anyone ordering might need to wait six weeks to get the book. Author's Guild is siding with Hachette.

Now Simon and Schuster vs Amazon is charging up. So far, Amazon is NOT HOLDING up shipments to clients. Amazon has hinted that there might be a deal to have Amazon purchase S&S from CBS. What is interesting in that possibility is that authors would conceivably earn more on each e-books the same way self-published authors do. (That is the skuttlebutt on twitter at least. PW has been posting things...)

The big houses are all at risk. They have been for years. Now, we're down to five I think.

What do you think is going on? How do you think that might impact authors? How might it impact small press publishers?

There was a public offer in the Hachette vs. Amazon dispute to pay authors 100% of the ebook prices, but it was seen as disingenuis as it was a tiny bit for Amazon and probably devastating for Hachette since they would receive nothing on any ebook sales. I well understand Hachette not accepting such an offer and the authors probably understand why.

Interesting conversation sure to ensue, or I hope so!

[Wordmaker]

I think this is a case of big companies having a dispute. It's going to suck for everyone affected, but it's not any kind of death knell or maliciousness as you'll find some claiming on each side of the argument.

There's a lot about the publishing industry that's still a little outdated. Not so much that the industry is doomed, but for example, we've got stats showing the profits of major publishers going up, while the income of their authors has dwindled. Something's going wrong somewhere, and I think companies need to adapt to the changing industry.