Amazon bid on Hocking

Wow ... That is interesting. I guess this won't be the last time Amazon tries this.

I guess they felt they had a say in the matter since that's technically where Mrs. Hocking debuted. It's interesting to see that Amazon didn't win the bid, even if sources say they were the highest offer.

Well, they're already publishers - I believe they took on Joe Konrath's latest book to put into print.

The only problem with Amazon as a publisher is that no self-respecting bookstore is going to stock their books. Why would you shelve the competition?

I do find it interesting that Hocking's agent refused the terms because they see Amazon as losing more and more of the ebook share and the exclusivity would hurt in the long run.

Wonder if Konrath's going to do a column on that...

There are other problems with Amazon as a publisher.

I was speaking about Amazon's contract to a couple of agents this weekend just past and both said that they would advise their clients to not sign Amazon's contract: it has a clause in it which allows Amazon to vary the terms at any point, without prior notice. I can understand why agents and authors would want to avoid that.

Old Hack said:

There are other problems with Amazon as a publisher.

I was speaking about Amazon's contract to a couple of agents this weekend just past and both said that they would advise their clients to not sign Amazon's contract: it has a clause in it which allows Amazon to vary the terms at any point, without prior notice. I can understand why agents and authors would want to avoid that.

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Maybe we should prep a thread over in B&BC, just in case...

That's incredible.

Maybe Amazon decided if they can drive up the advance costs to publishers, they're more likely to go under and that's less competition for Createspace.

I'm only half kidding lol.

What kind of editorial expertise does Amazon have, does anyone know?

This is why Amanda Hocking got an agent and despite her roots in self publishing, she is letting her agent get her the better long term deal...

I applaud Ms Hocking...

The article says Amazon was trying to partner with Houghton Mifflin to pull the deal off, so they were trying to make up for their total lack of editors, I guess.

jnfr said:

The article says Amazon was trying to partner with Houghton Mifflin to pull the deal off, so they were trying to make up for their total lack of editors, I guess.

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It's not just a lack of editing experience. It's a lack of publishing experience period.

gothicangel said:

It's not just a lack of editing experience. It's a lack of publishing experience period.

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It does present a problem for Amazon - if no brick-and-mortar stores will carry their printed books... there's a problem.

And obviously Amazon isn't writing off the print audience as so many pundits say - it was important enough for them to bid and include the print deal as part of the package.

I think Hocking's agent definitely earned his fees on that one. I don't know if I'd want to be bound to Amazon for those sort of terms...

It makes sense for Amazon to delve into the world of print publishing, even in partnership with a legacy publishing house. Amazon has the the distribution. That's what really matters. Actually, if there's a lesson to be learned from this, it's that Amazon acted too slowly. Instead of waiting for Amanda Hocking to become the subject of a bidding war, Amazon should have moved in with an offer before the others. After all, Amazon has ready access to their own sales numbers, as well as demographics that aren't available to the publishers. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Amazon is currently working on an algorithm to find the NEXT Amanda Hocking from among the ranks of self-published e-book authors? I also wouldn't be surprised if a number of publishers are regretting handing over online distribution to Amazon during the infancy of the internet.

Sheryl Nantus said:

It does present a problem for Amazon - if no brick-and-mortar stores will carry their printed books... there's a problem.

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Bricks-and-mortar stores? Walmart is the biggest player in that arena. I don't think that Amazon has to worry about Borders and B&N if they can find common ground with Walmart. This isn't about niche markets, but finding the next Stephenie Meyer, or considering that Amanda Hocking is indeed the next Stephenie Meyer, finding the next Amanda Hocking.

I think the two most interesting things in this article were.

1 - Amazon offered more than SMP
2 - They wanted exclusive ebook rights.

Looks like Amazon is starting to flex its muscles in controlling the ebook space.

But doesn't Amazon already "publish" books? Lemme check my shelf...

...kinda...I have a copy (purchased about a month ago) of Gumbo Ya Ya by Louisiana Writers' Project. The imprint is Forgotten Books (originally published by Houghton Mifflin in 1945 but I guess it fell out of print). Checking Forgotten Books website, they say they are "partners" of Amazon (and Google Books). But on the back of my copy it says "printed in Germany by Amazon Distribution GmbH").

As a side note, it's very poor quality print and the pictures are awful.

I wonder if the plan to make Kindle more and more exclusive will eventually backfire? One of the biggest selling points of the nook and Sony right now is already that they have a far wider reach, title-wise, than Amazon. They appeal to people who don't like the idea of "the man" controlling their content.

Amazon is formidable, no doubt. But I wonder if this strategy of trying to lock all sorts of authors to their files and their device will work in the long run, or if they'll go the way of iTunes in the end.

AmericaMadeMe said:

Bricks-and-mortar stores? Walmart is the biggest player in that arena.

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Is that supposed to be a joke?

Walmart only sell a small selection of bestsellers. They have nothing on Waterstone's et al. When was the last time you spent two hours browsing the bookshelves at Walmart?

gothicangel said:

Is that supposed to be a joke?

Walmart only sell a small selection of bestsellers.

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They stock only what sells. In terms of volume, they outpace every other bricks-and-mortar seller. That's what counts.

gothicangel said:

They have nothing on Waterstone's et al.

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You mean the chain of British bookstores that HMV is trying to sell off?

gothicangel said:

When was the last time you spent two hours browsing the bookshelves at Walmart?

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That's not the point. Walmart moves huge volume of print books. That's the point.

JSSchley said:

One of the biggest selling points of the nook and Sony right now is already that they have a far wider reach, title-wise, than Amazon. They appeal to people who don't like the idea of "the man" controlling their content.

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Is this true? I think Amazon has more titles then either Nook or Sony. Sony is very "restrictive" in who can be on there - Amazon is VERY open now - but I agree if they start moving away from that that will not be good for them.

AmericaMadeMe said:

gothicangel said:

They have nothing on Waterstone's et al.

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You mean the chain of British bookstores that HMV is trying to sell off?

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Gothicangel means the only profitable part of HMV's business.

Why they're trying to sell it off is anyone's guess; mine is that they'd use the proceeds to try to capitalise the rest of their online business before it all goes down the tubes.

rsullivan9597 said:

Is this true? I think Amazon has more titles then either Nook or Sony. Sony is very "restrictive" in who can be on there - Amazon is VERY open now - but I agree if they start moving away from that that will not be good for them.

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I know that robin has left us now, but I thought I would clarify this. I'm talking about the devices themselves, not whether or not it's easy for a self-publishing author to sell through the Sony store. (although with PubIt, selling through the nookstore is now as easy as Amazon.)

The Sony bookstore has a smaller number of books available than Amazon. The nook bookstore has more than twice as many (2 million as opposed to about 730,000 as of the release of the nook color last Christmas season). However, the key to the Sony and the nook are that they read a format that is sold not only by their respective stores. The Kindle still doesn't read ePub, because Amazon wants to tie its users to their content. So any writer wishing to publish for Kindle either has to bootleg their book, or sell through Amazon directly. Kindle users have 730,000 books to choose from (in the US), and maybe some extras from bootlegging.

Sony and nook, on the other hand, have almost limitless reach. Books that work for the nook and Sony (and iPad) can be bought legally from huge numbers of sources and do not have to be bought directly from the store associated with that reader, the biggest non-device-related store now being the Google e-book store. In the long run, I think this will give those devices a competitive edge if they can win out over Amazon's early lead, and I think authors will be rightfully skeptical of publishing with AMZ in a way that limits their legal buying market only to people who own Kindles.

Sheryl Nantus:
It does present a problem for Amazon - if no brick-and-mortar stores will carry their printed books... there's a problem.

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A couple of years ago news leaked that Amazon were thinking about doing some limited bricks and mortar stores and dallying with the idea of a pick-up option (similar to the Argos store concept in the UK) and I've heard stories in the UK that they had people looking at some of the old Borders stores when they went belly up to see about picking up a deal.

It's a tough call for Amazon because there are inherent risks in bricks and mortar stores that they don't face as a virtual retailer, e.g. market rent, worrying about footfall, increased staff costs etc.

Amazon have already been targeting self-publishers with good sales/good reputations via the Amazon Encore programme, which was launched back in 2009 and which included a J. A. Konrath title as Sheryl said. It's pretty modest at the moment - between 10 and 15 books are released per season but they are marketing those books, including via its own Vine programme.

It's interesting that they're looking to team up on the print side with Houghton Mifflin because it suggests they're playing to their strengths. I'd be interested to know of the potential competition/anti-trust implications of their going into it in a big way - I can't see the EU being happy with one of the biggest internet book retailers adding a publisher into that mix to give it vertical scope.

MM

JSSchley said:

The Kindle still doesn't read ePub, because Amazon wants to tie its users to their content.

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I've been looking at buying an e-readers and this right here is the reason why I've already ruled out the Kindle. The other readers have a lot more options when it comes to where to buy ebooks.

I imagine that I'm not the only one who has made this decision.