Throwing the Book at Amazon's Monopoly Hold on Publishing 📚

[appalachiablue]

- If a publisher’s titles aren’t available on Amazon, it might as well close shop & find a new line of business. Even the biggest publishers are no match for Amazon’s death grip on the book market. The Nation, Jan. 8, 2024.

(Photo: An anti-Amazon ad campaign, sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, at a Wash., D.C., independent bookstore).

It’s a common trope in movies: A mob enforcer walks into a shop, looks around, and then says to the owner, “Nice place you got here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it." Every viewer understands that a shakedown is in the works. The shop owner can either pay up immediately, or else his livelihood will burn to the ground. But what do we call it when a large firm makes a similar, although not quite so blatant, threat to a smaller firm that is reliant on its business?

What’s the laissez-faire euphemism for an arrangement that coerces the smaller firm into acquiescing to the larger firm’s unreasonable demands because if it refuses, it will lose substantial business and face financial ruin? In the book market, this is Amazon’s position in relation to publishing houses. The antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 states last fall hardly addresses the book industry—the first market that Jeff Bezos and his now trillion-dollar corporation targeted and took over.

But that doesn’t mean Amazon is, or should be, off the hook. Amazon is the largest bookseller in the world.

Consequently, the publishing industry relies on it to get its product to market. Amazon earns an estimated $28 billion a year from selling books. In 2020, the House Judiciary Committee found that Amazon controlled more than 50 percent of the overall (online and offline) print book market and more than 80 percent of the e-book market. In other words, if a publisher’s titles aren’t available on Amazon, it might as well close shop and find a new line of business.

Even the biggest publishers are no match for Amazon’s death grip on the book market.

That’s why all publishers, including those in the “Big Five” such as Hachette and Penguin Random House, are afraid of doing anything that might upset the company. Amazon has proven time and again that it won’t hesitate to retaliate against publishers that step out of line. These retaliatory games include removing the “buy” button beneath a title’s listing on the site, delaying shipping books to customers, claiming that titles are out of stock when Amazon is actually just refusing to restock the titles, and rejecting pre-sales for new books...

https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/throwing-the-book-at-amazons-monopoly-hold-on-publishing/

[radical noodle]

1. Is this really a problem?

I've never encountered this when buying books on Amazon (and I buy a lot of them). Occasionally, when I wanted a book that was out of print I was forced to buy a used one, but I've never been unable to get a current book there.

[appalachiablue]

4. It's not a problem for you but others object to monopolies, Amazon's business practices & poor treatment of employees.

[Igel]

2. I buy books from Amazon.

Mostly.

From time to time I go to the publisher's site. Fairly often, Amazon undercuts them. That's amusing.

At the same time, there are booksellers for overseas books where Amazon has no agreements with sources from those countries. Then there's the occasional independent Amazon seller relying on ignorance. I get a book from randomforeignbook.com (not a real site ... I hope) for $10, the independent Amazon seller will have it for $140. Used. (There's amazon.fr, amazon.de, amazon.mx, amazon.br ... Way cool if you're into language study or just reading in foreign languages. First time I bought overseas books was from Les Editeurs reunis ... Place order. Get invoice. Send money by bank wire. Get books weeks later. More recently--a decade back--got a bunch of books from Guangzhou, Tehran, Beirut ... But in each case had to risk that some random Internet site/bookseller might not be reliable.)

I don't want Amazon--thriftbooks.com, betterworldbooks.com, abebooks.com.

Or do what I'm doing with Platonov's Chevengur, not under copyright because of stupid Socialist Union's policies and laws. Track down a pdf and read it on your phone.

[appalachiablue]

6. Great, good that works for you

[Bayard]

9. I love Better World Books

I get almost all of mine from there. Used, and in good shape for a fraction of the price.

[Silent Type]

3. But you can get just about any book listed on Amazon. Self publish a book,

and it’s easy. Now, that’s no guarantee Amazon will store it in warehouses for 2-day Prime delivery.

[appalachiablue]

5. #4

[Silent Type]

7. If I write a book, I want it to be where it gets the most exposure. Not sure how #4 applies.

[appalachiablue]

8. I understand how that's an advantage for you, but

living in a society where there's one giant bank, one general merchandise store, one grocery store or one internet provider reduces competition. The monopoly can charge more, and consumers and workers have no other choice. It's unhealthy for communities as well.

These are the primary issues with monopolies, like Rockefeller's Standard Oil, railroads and other huge businesses back in the Gilded Age before Anti Trust laws.

[Silent Type]

10. If people can save enough by going to BooksaMillion, Barnes, local fine books,

etc., they’ll go there. If not, obvious people prefer Amazon. There’s WalMart, Target, eBay, etc.

Not saying Amazon is prefect, but Covid was manageable because of Amazon. Now, if Amazon published books, significantly keeps titles from market, etc., I’d be concerned.