Comment by lores
1 year ago
Amazon has publishers over a barrel - it makes up a large proportion of book sales, but it's so aggressive in negotiations that publishers hardly make any profit at all. They hate Amazon like a shopkeeper hates the local racketeers extracting protection money. I guess Bloomsbury finally snapped, and I wouldn't be surprised if other publishers follow suit now that the dam has broken.
If all the major publishers pull out, Amazon loses negotiating power. But it only works if the publishers act as a block
Be careful what you wish for. The level of collusion that would allow 'all' the major publishers to neuter Amazon would very quickly be redirected to all the other retail channels.
Yes, publishers have not proven to be particularly civic-minded in the past. I'm having a hard time picking who to root for, but it's probably slightly better to have a world of many cartels than a single one - and it gives a chance for the other retail channels to form a block too.
On a side note, France solved this particular problem by mandating a unique price for books, regardless of the retail channel, in order to protect less-commercial titles. Not exactly scalable to all sectors, but Art will not be cheapened.