Good and bad news for digital publishers. Amazon just dropped approximately 4,500 Kindle titles published through the Independent Publishers Group (IPG), the country’s second-largest distributor of books. IPG President Mark Suchomel, in an email cited on the Publishers Lunch blog, said Amazon was pressuring publishers and distributors “to change their terms for electronic and print books to be more favorable toward Amazon.”This is unfortunate since Amazon’s dominance in both the print and ebook markets is allowing the company to create something of a monopoly. There is also some speculation that Amazon is trying to get rid of publishers and distributors all together; according to the Bits blog from The New York Times, “The only two essential parties in the reading experience, Amazon executives are fond of saying, are the reader and the author.”The good news is that subscription, membership and paywall sites may have a more favored relationship with Amazon Kindle — for now. Amazon’s penchant for decreasing profit margins incrementally may leave even independent sites with original Kindle content scratching their heads in a few years’ time. The best option? Diversify and make your content available on as many platforms as possible.In fact, this week our sister site, Subscription Site Insider, will be publishing an article on the pros and cons of Google Books for membership and subscription sites. Check back here tomorrow for a tip that will save you time and money.
Amazon Tries to Cut Out Middle Man With New Kindle Terms
Good and bad news for digital publishers. Amazon just dropped approximately 4,500 Kindle titles published through the Independent Publishers Group (IPG), the country’s second-largest
- Filed in Business Media and Publishing, Subscriber Only
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