Kindle Review – Kindle Fire Review, Kindle 4 Review

There are a lot of people trying to distract us from the real war going on for the future of publishing.

Its easy to get side-tracked by -

1. Google Vs Amazon.  
2. Amazon Kindle Vs Sony Reader.
3. Plastic Logic eReader Vs Kindle DX.
4. Publisher misinformation 
5. Misinformation by other sites

And a whole myriad of smaller issues.

However, the war for publishing’s future revolves around the democratization of publishing.

Creators, Readers and Enablers

The current publishing model has the enablers dictating everything -

1. Publishers decide who to publish. 
2. Distributors and Retailers decide who to exhibit.
3. Publishers, Distributors and Retailers take 85% or more of the amount readers pay.

With the Internet we can create an author-reader direct connection.

Companies like Amazon will make a huge profit by making things easy and enabling this connection. Mr. Bezos is very, very smart – he realizes Amazon can’t be the sort of oligarchy/dictatorship that the current big publishing houses are.

 Amazon are enabling the democratization of publishing and establishing themselves as the foundation on which the new publishing model is built.

How does the Amazon Kindle help democratize publishing?

Here are a few ways -

1. It doesn’t cost as much to produce a book. This is critical as it lets self-published authors compete with published houses without getting killed due to economies of scale.  
2. It lets anyone publish and get shelf space on the Kindle Store.  
3. It lets users decide placement i.e. reviews from users decide what every other user will see, and user purchases determine the bestseller lists.
4. It magnifies the power of word of mouth. A kindle owner who loves a book can go to the official kindle forum and tell thousands of other people in just 5 minutes of effort.

There are a lot of other ways – some of which we don’t even fully understand.

The success of some self-published authors shows its possible. The Kindle and the Kindle Store really do allow for self-published success.

We are at the beginning of the revolution. At some level all of us are so used to the status quo we don’t fully recognize the changes.

Publishers and a lot of other people are stuck in the past

Publishers are used to the status quo i.e. they control what gets published, they make the lion’s share of the profits, we read what they decide we should read, and so forth.

Take a look at this article from Paid Content -

Don’t expect the majority of Kindle books to be priced at $9.99 for too much longer. In a report Friday, Bernstein Research Analysts Claudio Aspesi and Jeffrey Lindsay say that the average price of Kindle books will have to increase to improve the economics for both publishers and Amazon.

Wow! So Aspesi and Lindsay are assuming -

1. Kindle book prices are going to go over $9.99.
2. The aim of the move to ebooks is to increase profits for publishers and Amazon. 
3. Amazon are stupid enough to put publishers ahead of customers.

That’s a perfect example of people being stuck in the past. They’ve mentioned customers as an after thought at the end of article – it’s not like customers are the ones who’re paying $9.99 a book … wait a minute.

Who are the enemies of the move to democratized publishing?

Mostly, the publishers, physical retailers, and distributors. Add on -

1. Sites like Scribd that will let Publishers determine prices.  
2. People who are not seeing the real issue.
3. People who are stuck in the past.

There’s a lot of disinformation out there -

1. People trying to prey on our fears that with digital books we don’t really own the book.  The recent thread of ‘limited number of downloads’ is a good example.
2. Publishers pushing  the belief that Amazon takes 65% of revenue.
   

   What they really mean to say is Amazon takes 65% of the $24 list price and gives them just $8.40. However, that $8.40 is from a sale price of $9.99. So they actually get 84% of the sales price.

We just need to focus on the main issue at stake here.  

Closing Thoughts on the Future of Publishing

The Amazon Kindle has, knowingly or unknowingly, brought about the beginnings of a democratization of publishing. It has also given readers and authors a lot more power. There are lots of signs -

1. The Rise of  self-published authors.
2. Authors asking for, and sometimes getting, a larger cut of ebook profits.  
3. Dearth of books over $9.99 in the kindle store bestsellers list.
4. 35% sales of kindle edition books when both kindle and physical editions are available.

We are just 1.5 years into this. It takes 5-10 years for really big changes to happen. The signs are clear that by 2012 we’ll be living in a world where the majority of the power and benefits lie with readers and authors.

Filed under: kindle, publishing Tagged: | future of publishing