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Amazon’s Monopsony Is Not O.K.
- amrrs 12y agoSo apart from stop buying from Amazon, what else one common citizen of Internet can do?
- raverbashing 12y agoYeah, we can buy elsewhere, but they charge more for shipping and oh yeah, your CC is not working here...
- amrrs 12y agoAnd it's really a pain to jump between different sites for different books and who would want to experience all the pain and again pay more?
- mironathetin 12y agoShipping costs dont't matter, do they? Reading a book takes a while. Why do I care whether it comes free of charge or costs a few cents? Books still are great value for the money. I can read 2 or three a month, maximum. Shipping cost for books are really a negligible point in my total budget. Finally, you always pay for shipping. Either with cash or, as we see, by amazon squeezing the price from someone else. It is not free.
- TorKlingberg 12y agoShipping costs affect the total price of the books. People certainly care about price, or Amazon wouldn't have become so popular.
- davidw 12y agoIf they don't matter to you, perhaps you'd be willing to pay mine. I'd gladly buy paper books from http://www.powells.com/ http://www.powells.com/ and have them shipped here to Italy, but it's expensive and slow.
- yc1234yc 12y agohttps://ebook.farm https://ebook.farm sells (no DRM) ebooks with bitcoin as one of the payment option (with a bonus)
- a3n 12y agoThere's nothing on their front page about how it works. I tried applying for an invite out of a leap of faith, but I don't qualify as I don't have an account with any of the below. I wonder what sort of customer they're trying to filter for. To get an invite: Send a private message to @ebookfarm on Mobilism [Must have an active Mobilism account] Send a private message to @ebookfarm on Reddit [Must have an active Reddit account] Send a private message to Ebooka Farmer on Facebook [Must have an active Facebook account]
- a3n 12y agoI live in the Denver area, we're lucky enough to have The Tattered Cover. I've been able to order any book I want from them, and when it arrives I go pick it up. Bonus: I get out of the house. Bonus: I get to sniff the books on the shelf when I'm there. If I recall correctly, in Seattle the University Bookstore has (had?) free shipping according to some deal or condition, and if not you can have it delivered there, and then get out of the house and sniff books. But most of my book buying these days is DRM-free pdfs from O'Reilly.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoJoin your local library and make full use of the inter-library lending agreement, or internet 0.1b as I like to think of it.
- dingaling 12y ago> Join your local library and make full use of the inter-library lending agreement Soon adds up: 60p (plus £3.40 if an interlibrary loan is necessary) Often cheaper just to find it for £1 plus postage costs on Amazon or Abebooks.
- nkurz 12y agoI think this is a regional/cultural/national difference. I've used interlibrary loans at local (non-university) libraries in 5 different US states, and never been charged a fee. The "overdue" fees are usually about $1/day if you exceed the 2-3 week loan period, but if you return on time you pay nothing. In the US, the interlibrary loan system is a fantastic and underutilized resource.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoMonopoly usually follows monopsony. I do not expect book prices to be kept low by Amazon, if Amazon manage to kill off the major publishing houses. And their willingness to make exceptions for politician's books in their corporate spats is outrageous.
- icebraining 12y agoMonopoly usually follows monopsony. Does it? For a business with a low barrier to entry like selling books? I'd like to see some examples. The reason Amazon can have a monopsony is because it keeps prices low. It retains customers and forces publishers to go through them. If they raised prices, they'd lose their advantage, and there are plenty of competitors ready to take the market, including well funded companies (e.g. Apple and Google). If this was what's usually called a "natural monopoly", maybe that could be argued, but book selling - and especially ebook selling - is anything but.
- lotsofmangos 12y agoHmm, you have a very good point. Amazon are sitting pretty at the moment, but if something like crowdfunding authors became popular, Amazon could lose market pretty quickly. That said, if you look at the big 4, they largely consist of mergers of very old companies, and Amazon is really the only successful ebook seller in english at the moment, even Google seems to have problems getting far in that market. So the barriers to entry may be higher than you think.
- monkeyprojects 12y agoThe barrier to entry against the Kindle that is on my bedside cabinet and many others is virtually impossible to remove. Amazon offer a painless way of adding books to the device. Buying a book takes seconds and it magically appears on the front page of the device waiting to be read. Its one reason why book piracy didn't go as insane as music piracy, the means of adding books was easier than the device
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- raverbashing 12y agoDistribution channels are important, and editors will have to adapt to these new means. I wonder if there was a way of cutting the middle man and selling the books directly from their website in a way that is readable in all e-book readers, hummm
- amrrs 12y agoso Skip Amazon? But all users won't go to each publishing company's page to check for their new releases. That's how Amazon is sandwiched in the middle.
- raverbashing 12y agoThis, but also iBooks, Google Play, etc And of course, just provide DRM-Free books on their website for a discounted price.
- fluidcruft 12y agoSlightly off topic, are there any e-ink Google Play readers? It seems like Amazon, Apple and Google all like to silo their devices and there isn't really any independent path.
- dublinben 12y agoIt's trivial to remove the DRM from Google Play EPUBs, and load them onto a Kobo or other eReader. https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/ https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/
- ianlevesque 12y agoEPUB, PDF, the web. All good options.
- amrrs 12y agoWhy not an open-source one something like where everyone has power? something like Reddit or Bitcoin?
- __Joker 12y agoLittle tangential but Amazon is expecting this and preparing for antitrust lawsuits. [1][2] [1]http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/06/heres-what-amazon-lobbies-for-in-d-c/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/08/06/h... [2]https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000023883 https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000023883
- ajross 12y agoI normally love Krugman, but it seems like he skipped a step here. Amazon is squeezing publishers to push prices down, which is bad becuase... why? I mean, the apocalyptic end game here is that publishers are forced out of business entirely and Amazon ends up buying content directly from authors, I guess. That doesn't sound so bad to me, nor like something that's going to "hurt America". Maybe then they might squeeze authors too, though that seems like something publishers are already able to do today, no? What's the critical function provided by publishing houses that Amazon is in danger of disrupting?
- bryanlarsen 12y agoThe standard monopsony effect is on quality. Monopsonies push the price below the cost of production, so producers cut production costs to an unreasonable level. In the case of books, you'd see that by cuts in editing, by authors shortening the amount of time that they spend writing a book, and through authors dropping out and leaving the field to less talented writers with fewer alternative income sources. The textbook monopsony is government health care. Most visibly, the long wait times for some health care services.
- slowmovintarget 12y agoExcept Amazon is arguing for a lower price because it will increase sales and make both Amazon and the publisher more money. They aren't asking for more books or less editing. They're trying to make everyone more money. Worse, the argument is over pricing on e-books, not physical stock, so Hachette's stance makes even less sense. As usual, Paul Krugman sees everything through a political lens, so naturally Amazon is evil and must be beaten down.
- bryanlarsen 12y agoLower prices increase sales and profits for Amazon because they compete against book stores. Lower prices decrease profits for book publishers who make money both from Amazon and book stores.
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- nabla9 12y agoThis years Nobel price in Economics was given to Jean Tirole whose field this is. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/laureates/2014/advanced-economicsciences2014.pdf http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economic-sciences/lau... Industrial organization is very interesting and important field to follow even if you are a layman interested in game theory, mechanism design and implementation theory. Market structure is big important part of efficiently working free markets.
- gadders 12y agoIt looks like Hachette's PR department has stepped up a gear. This subject has been covered several times before and I think this comment [1] did a good job of explaining Hachette and Amazon's positions. To summarise: When Hachette's contract with Amazon expired, Amazon (rightfully) stopped ordering advance inventory for stocking, but continued taking orders for available titles and transmitted those orders to Hachette as they arrived. From there, it's Hachette's responsibility to deliver the orders to an Amazon distribution center. Once the books arrive, Amazon packs & ships them to purchasing customers as normal. That's why, when Hachette's contract expired, all of their books were listed as "Out of stock: ships in 1 to 6 weeks" - that's how long it takes Hachette to deliver stock. That's slow as hell. Amazon didn't "boycott" or "drop" or "betray" authors or "discourage" readers from buying their books - it ceased offering retail inventory management services to a supplier whose contract had expired, and made a rational and defensible business decision when it became clear that the supplier was not negotiating in good faith to establish a new agreement. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8151181#up_8151480 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8151181#up_8151480
- Tyrannosaurs 12y agoAre you suggesting that Nobel Prize Winner Paul Krugman is speaking out against Amazon because Hachette have drafted him for some sort of PR campaign?
- _almosnow 12y agoYes he is, and it looks like that to me as well. What's the deal with Paul Krugman being a Nobel Prize winner? [1] [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_accomplishment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_accomplishment
- leoc 12y agoTyrannosaurs may have been tongue-in-cheek there; certainly the capitalised 'Winner' suggests so. (Relevant: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-16/paul-krugman-brand-ambassador http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-16/paul-krugma... .)
- kuni-toko-tachi 12y agoPaul Krugman is a foam at the mouth kook. He's consistently wrong, and only continues to be "relevant" because he promotes a particular view of the world, which is both absurd and popular because it is based on feelings and not reality. Capitalism is based on grow and destruction. It is just as absurd to argue against Amazon as it would have been to argue for Blockbuster. Netflix comes along, and Blockbuster disappears. Markets are brutally efficient, and crying over the losers is a waste of time at best, and if this bleating results in government regulation, harmful.
- seanflyon 12y agoYou second paragraph is reasonable, but you have not supported your claim that "Paul Krugman is a foam at the mouth kook". Statements like that should not be made without justification.
- kuni-toko-tachi 12y agoI should have toned down that statement. The main disagreement that many people have with Paul Krugman is that he is a central planner, he believes that the state should be an economic actor. That premise is fundamentally flawed.
- mikeash 12y agoMonopolies and monopsonies only matter when they're difficult to overcome because their size gives them an insurmountable competitive advantage. Absent that, they only exist as long as people are happy with them. Amazon is easy to bypass. The major publishers could set up their own online stores tomorrow if they wanted to. Authors could set up their own stores too. There are a ton of viable alternatives.
- chc 12y agoIt seems like you're using a very liberal sense of the word "viable" if "Authors could set up their own stores" is considered a viable alternative to selling on Amazon.
- WalterBright 12y agoI've bought books from authors who set up their own web sites to sell their own ebooks.
- chc 12y agoI'm not sure I see the relevance. Lots of people do lots of different things. Some people juggle geese. Does you having bought books from authors who set up their own websites mean that bespoke websites are a viable alternative to Amazon for the majority of authors?
- WalterBright 12y agoOf course they are viable. The ones I bought from were set up because the author didn't want to deal with Amazon. It's never been easier for an author who wants to sell his own books to do so. It also isn't hard for like-minded authors to pool their resources and set up their own sales site.
- chc 12y agoMaybe this is true, but I hope you'll forgive me if I do not take your totally unsubstantiated word for it. Is there actually a good reason I should believe this is viable? Because I have seen no evidence of that whatsoever and a lot of evidence to the contrary (chiefly, the paucity of authors succeeding using this supposedly viable option when compared to other avenues).
- davidf18 12y agoThe publishers are taking a far greater proportion of profits leaving authors a far less proportion of the profits with e-books compared with hardcopy books. Amazon is attempting to increase the author's share of profits on e-books while reducing the publisher's share. This is what Krugman is criticizing. From the article linked below: $27.99 hardcover generates $5.67 profit to publisher and $4.20 royalty to author $14.99 agency priced e-book generates $7.87 profit to publisher and $2.62 royalty to author. Hardcopy: $9.87 total profit: approx 57.8% to publisher e-book: $10.49 total profit: 75% to publisher https://web.archive.org/web/20130713080118/http://aardvarknow.us/2013/06/04/e-books-and-profitability-what-weve-always-said-and-publishers-have-always-denied/ https://web.archive.org/web/20130713080118/http://aardvarkno...
- wiredfool 12y agoThere's a difference between profit and revenue.
- nateabele 12y ago> [A]nd in case you’re wondering, yes, I have Amazon Prime and use it a lot. But again, so what? Translation: I absolve myself of all responsibility as a consumer for the business I choose to conduct.
- vertex-four 12y agoEntirely ignoring whether or not a monopsony is OK or a good thing, or the exact details of this situation - are there any retail book sellers organised as co-ops operated by authors or independent publishers themselves? Even if the co-op doesn't actually do any of the technical side itself, and outsources that, they could easily retain control over the code and the customer base, which would be a good thing for them.
- teslaberry 12y agokrugman cannot be trusted. everything he writes is with the angle of getting a job as federal reserve chair or treasury head. economics is not a science and his nobel prize is on par with obama's nobel piece prize, given for every piece of the middle east he was about to surge with troops.
- Houshalter 12y agoHe compares it to standard oil. But Standard Oil drove down prices, and prices went up after they were broken up. They never abused their monopoly powers, in fact they were never a complete monopoly.
- fraserharris 12y agoA simpler explanation for Amazon offering 2 - 3 day shipping for Paul Ryan's book is that Amazon purposely avoided aggravating an influential Congressman. This is a much lesser accusation than systematically favoring books of a certain political bias with quicker shipping times.