Rekindling your love of the Amazon: perspective two

There was a time when young Alcott’s heroine of Little Women, Jo March, had to go from publisher to publisher, editing lines, paragraphs and words to get her book published.

Publishers have forever been the Alpha and Omega of literary history, from the Victorian circulating libraries of Mudie and WH Smith to giant modern publishers Penguin and Bloomsbury.

For decades, writers have been highly dependent on publishers to communicate their
work to the public. In fact, this process has even discouraged a considerable bunch of
obscure artists from entering the limelight.

But in the last two decades, things have begun to change.

For one, the Internet has made reading a convenient and affordable interest. Many budding artists use blogs to promote their work. Websites like poetry.com help poets publish their works for free. Online book promotions and selling have become increasingly popular. It is with the latter phenomenon that our story lies; a story about one of the greatest online retail stores today.

In 1995 Amazon started out as an online bookstore, shipping orders to 48 countries in its very first month. While bookstores could sell only a limited number books at a time, Amazon were revolutionary – they could sell limitless amounts via online transactions. It was the beginning of a new era of worldwide retail. Big book sellers like Waterstone’s and Barnett’s began to despair.

Even today, with rivals such as Barnes and Noble, E-Bay and Borders, Amazon’s competitive pricing and efficient business model seems to have kept it on the No.1 spot. While most rivals have multiple store fronts (meaning more expenditure), Amazon uses the Internet as its sole distribution channel. It is able to set reasonable prices for its products.

Offering a further blow to publishers, Amazon has developed to launch its independent publishing house. In 2009, Amazon Publishing was founded, launching its maiden imprint, Amazon Encore. Encore dealt with the publishing of promising works like their much publicized “Legacy” by Cayla Kluver that had previously been overlooked by most successful publishers of the time.

Amazon Crossing followed closely after in 2010. Crossing dealt with translating famous works into English, including Tierno Monénembo’s French novel The King of Kahel and German Oliver Pötzsch’s novel The Hangman’s Daughter.

With these successful ventures in place, Amazon has now begun to encourage authors
to publish their works directly through its publishing unit. Self-help guru Tim Ferris,
actress and director Penny Marshall, and veteran publisher Laurence Kirschbaum
have proved to be their first successful targets and the list of authors seems to be
increasing overtime. This summer they plan to publish 122 books and promotion
seems to be no hurdle.

But it isn’t just publishers who have been devastated by this move. Literary agents,
critics and a bunch of middlemen stand to lose business with Amazon’s new move,
adding to Amazon’s growing list of disgruntled rivals.

Strangely, publishers seem to have been relatively unprepared for Amazon’s venture.
Frankly, I would think it a most predictable turn in the circumstances, and publishing
units should perhaps have been more prepared.

Video blogger and public speaker Gary Vaynerchuk takes on quite a merciless
stand. In a recent video, “Game Over For Publishers”, discussing the publishing
world, he states: “Unless you bring value in the middle, you shouldn’t exist.” A
provocative statement in these times of change.

Though Gary’s views perhaps seem a little harsh, we cannot deny that in the fierce retail
world the Internet has gained an untouchable status. Even supermarkets like Tesco
and Sainsbury’s, whose chief marketing strategy lay in their environmental appeal,
have resorted to online transactions for extra revenue. Publishers, with their brick
and mortar centres, and their traditional marketing and retail practices, don’t stand a
chance against Amazon’s superior product.

As if this wasn’t enough. Amazon is now promoting the new £89 Kindle, which
might just about eliminate the need for paperback versions. If Amazon decides to
promote its e-books section over and above its paperback retail, it won’t be just
publishers landing in the soup.

As a book-lover, the fortunate spectator in this concatenation of events, I see a
strange promise in this event. Amazon’s support of new authors will ensure a wider
avenue of literary material, which I heartily welcome.

And as for authors, life seems to be looking up. What once seemed to be a trial
ground has now become an arena of opportunities. Amazon’s willingness to promote
deserving amateurs has encouraged authors to submit new and different literature
for publication.

Some might argue that this seems to have made literature a not
so selective process. A popular, hence inferior art form, like the film. Anyone and everyone has the chance to publish. But blog writer Jimmy Kukral makes an interesting rebuttal to their argument in his entry, “A Book Is A Book, Period”- “A book is a book, plain and simple. It doesn’t
matter how it’s delivered.”

When Amazon started its journey as a book-broker, it redefined our perceptions of the
literary process. Its new initiative seems to have created a similar effect. The process
of publishing is far from being eliminated. Rather, it will be revolutionized by the
growing hegemony of Amazon.

_agcutinha@hotmail.com_