In The Amazon vs Hatchette Fight, There’s A Definite Loser

Vox has a couple of articles posted that examine the celebrity death match currently taking place between Hatchette and Amazon (Here and here). They do an excellent job of examining many of the issues surrounding the dispute.

I’ve been trying to get my head around this debacle for a couple of months but it seems like every piece of analysis I come across spins me in a different direction. What I am most interested in understanding is how does this dispute affect me, as both a reader and an independent author.

Check out the articles for yourselves, but I think you’ll find that neither side comes off very well. Hatchette represents an old model for doing business, one that relies on a few select gatekeepers to decide what content is worthy of mass consumption. Amazon and other new players in the industry are tearing that model down. But is what they are erecting any better?

If you’re a reader, yes. Cheaper books, more conveniently available? Yes, please. I’m strongly in favor of supporting your local bookstores but I’m certainly not going to shed a tear for a behemoth franchise like Borders going out of business.

But if you’re an indie author, not so much. Amazon, as pointed out by Timothy Lee, has a number of policies in place that limit the freedom of book owners and they are not shy about leveraging their power in the industry to their advantage. For example, the only way I can get 70% of my books profits, a la the Apple iBookstore, is to offer it exclusively in Amazon. Pretty dastardly.

My takeaway is that we’ve got two big companies fighting over which direction the industry is headed, each trying to shape the publishing landscape to their own advantage. As is so often the case in our modern corporate landscape, it’s the independent retailers and creators who are getting ignored.

Perhaps John Scalzi puts it best (HT The Guardian): “The truth is that this is a fracas in which everyone is in it for himself, herself and itself, despite any claims to the contrary.”

Check out Decater's new novel, available now at Amazon. Plus, don't forget his earlier books: Ahab's Adventures in Wonderland and Picasso Painted Dinosaurs.