Can Macmillan dam(n) the Amazon?

I remember the first commercial that I ever heard for Amazon: I was in my bedroom as a child, listening to the radio. I don’t remember it exactly, but Amazon said that it had giant warehouses full of more books than would fit on the moon.

I, being a young child with an active imagination, imagined one giant moon-sized warehouse and tried to pinpoint where in the United States they would put it. The whole idea seemed amazing to me, a person who loved books and only had access to the library. Imagine: I could get the next book without worrying that it was checked out, or being put on the library’s new book waitlist!

But what Amazon meant to child-Tanna is different than what Amazon means to big me. Amazon would be more fittingly named Nile, because that’s exactly what it is (although Amazon works too, Nile is a more accessible metaphor): a visible river channel (of products) through a part of the world (industry) that everyone relies on. There may be tributaries, but they aren’t the main focus, and you can’t take barges and cruise ships down a publisher’s website to buy books. There isn’t the capacity to handle that traffic. The Nile is for the big dogs and the consumer.

However, like the Nile has a monopoly on Egypt, Amazon appears to be gaining a monopoly in the book industry. It is so huge that publishers can’t ignore it as a major vendor, and only the big guys like Macmillan could get away with putting their foot down on the price of eBooks. Amazon couldn’t even care one iota if student-run Ooligan Press stood ground on eBook pricing.

Amazon’s business model is different from big five publishers since it doesn’t have to rely on authors, and their royalties, to make money. It does not have an editorial team like the major publishers, no book design team, but just relies on heavy discounts and whatever crap self-publishers will pay Amazon to sell their books for them. Publishers can’t compete. What this means for the publishing industry is that the big five are going to have to join forces and become the book behemoth that parts the Amazonian waters (and mixes the metaphors).

If Amazon values books below market cost, like they did in the Wal-Mart Wars of ‘09, then publishers can’t compete with Amazon’s business model. That’s not good for anyone, and until Amazon becomes a publisher with acquisitions through marketing departments, they need the publishers to keep making books. Hopefully, Macmillan can stop the Amazon and make eBook publishing profitable for all publishers.