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But the biggest reason is that one simply cannot argue with any credibility that Amazon has control over the market for buzz. My book buying habits may not be r

But the biggest reason is that one simply cannot argue with any credibility that Amazon has control over the market for buzz. My book buying habits may not be representative of the public at large, but while I almost always buy my books through Amazon I cannot remember the last time I discovered one there. Yeah, appeal to the sample size of 1, great argument... I do use Amazon for discovering new books, now he has a sample size of 2 and Amazon controls a massive 50% of the world's "buzz". That changed fast didn't it. I'm sure there are good responses to Krugman out there, but this isn't one.

mooreds 12y ago
Here's a response to Krugman that I found far more thoughtful than this Economist article, from Matt Ygleslias of Vox: http://www.vox.com/2014/10/22/7016827/amazon-hachette-monopoly http://www.vox.com/2014/10/22/7016827/amazon-hachette-monopo... And here's a response to his response: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119977/what-matt-yglesias-doesnt-understand-about-book-publishing http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119977/what-matt-yglesias...
- brianbreslin 12y ago
  The new republic piece is interesting, but misses a large segment of the book industry: academic material. My father published a few non fiction books on an academic press, after years of work, they paid him less than $2000. Hardly worth the time, and due to the nature of how they published it, the price was far too high to gain much traction sales wise.
- mcguire 12y ago
  "In a system without the publisher operating as middleman, where the author takes his life’s work and just posts it to Amazon, each book becomes a lonely outpost in the stiff winds of the marketplace, a tiny business that must sell or die.... "But I’m not sure that even Yglesias would want to live in the world he’s envisioning. Mark Krotov, an editor at Melville House, points out on Twitter that in posts like these two, Yglesias has often recommended 'good, unusual books' such as Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey and Daniel Dennett’s Consciousness Explained. 'I’m confident that none of these books, as different and diverse as they are, could ever have found their audience without a publisher,' Krotov writes." I'm rather suspecting that Evan Hughes could stand to be less ignorant of the industry he's discussing. For one thing, Tripmaster Monkey is at least the fifth book that Kingston has written (I can't find a complete bibliography.) and Dennett's Content and Consciousness was published in 1969, 22 years before Consciousness Explained. Both of them had already "found their audiences" before those books were written, much less published. Further, Dennett has published many of his books with academic presses, where advances are rare. (Anyone know if MIT Press pays them?)
- cthalupa 12y ago
  Regarding the New Republic piece, I'm not sure I think his insurance analogy fits. With insurance (Particularly now, in the US), everyone can pay in and get it. With publishing, only a super select few ever get in, and those that do will get dropped if they get 'sick' and stay 'sick', regardless of whether or not they were 'healthy' when they got in.
Spooky23 12y ago
How do you discover books on there? Even when you know what you want, Amazon will make it difficult or impossible to figure out what you need. My wife enjoys a few popular fiction offers who publish different series of books. Amazon has no obvious way to search for a book in a series. Even used book thrift shops figure that out! Then you have the issue of third party listings cluttering up search results. If you want to buy a Mac Mini, you'd better be familiar with the Apple model numbers, because you may have a 3 year old model land at the top of the stack.
- lmm 12y ago
  > How do you discover books on there? Click "Recommended for you". Their "search for something specific" interface may have problems, but their "suggest me something new, I don't really know what" interface is top-notch.
  - Spooky23 12y ago
    Their recommendation engine is good, but only for individual products. It also gets screwed up if you buy something in a profitable niche outside of your typical profile -- I bought a book once about a gay latino's life for a class and received lgbt and latino recommendations for years that were not very relevant to me. A pretty basic use case for people who read serial novels (ie. millions of people) is the ability to recommend a series or books within a series. People can down-vote me because Amazon is a cool company, but it's a use case that they just don't fulfill.
    - VLM 12y ago
      "recommendations for years that were not very relevant to me." You can go into recommendations and there's a drop down where you can tag why a recommendation is inappropriate, tell amazon it was a gift and the whole topic will magically, nearly instantly, disappear. I had the same issue with Thomas the Tank Engine and I'm not sure which of us had it worse. Its a UI failure in the checkout process, just because I don't want amazon to wrap my gifts for me doesn't mean that I'm buying something thats not a gift at checkout time. Its also a backend failure, come on Amazon lets think this one thru a bit, looking at the rest of my ordering history do you Really think I'm a big Thomas fan? Really? I mean he's cool, sure, but...
7952 12y ago
In terms of books I wonder if the average shopper on amazon is really thinking about books enough (compared to all the other products) for buzz to be generated. On my front page I have chilli sauce, bike spares, bluetooth headsets and automtive tools. I have found lots of books on Audible based entirely on popularity, and I am sure Kindle is the same. IMHO subscription services have far more power to push a particular title than a normal shop as you are a captive audience. You are much more likely to go for the serendipity of a popular title that may not appeal to you normally as you are not spending a cash amount. And with Audible there is no risk as you can return titles you don't like.

mooreds 12y ago

Here's a response to Krugman that I found far more thoughtful than this Economist article, from Matt Ygleslias of Vox: http://www.vox.com/2014/10/22/7016827/amazon-hachette-monopoly http://www.vox.com/2014/10/22/7016827/amazon-hachette-monopo... And here's a response to his response: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119977/what-matt-yglesias-doesnt-understand-about-book-publishing http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119977/what-matt-yglesias...

brianbreslin 12y ago
The new republic piece is interesting, but misses a large segment of the book industry: academic material. My father published a few non fiction books on an academic press, after years of work, they paid him less than $2000. Hardly worth the time, and due to the nature of how they published it, the price was far too high to gain much traction sales wise.
mcguire 12y ago
"In a system without the publisher operating as middleman, where the author takes his life’s work and just posts it to Amazon, each book becomes a lonely outpost in the stiff winds of the marketplace, a tiny business that must sell or die.... "But I’m not sure that even Yglesias would want to live in the world he’s envisioning. Mark Krotov, an editor at Melville House, points out on Twitter that in posts like these two, Yglesias has often recommended 'good, unusual books' such as Maxine Hong Kingston’s Tripmaster Monkey and Daniel Dennett’s Consciousness Explained. 'I’m confident that none of these books, as different and diverse as they are, could ever have found their audience without a publisher,' Krotov writes." I'm rather suspecting that Evan Hughes could stand to be less ignorant of the industry he's discussing. For one thing, Tripmaster Monkey is at least the fifth book that Kingston has written (I can't find a complete bibliography.) and Dennett's Content and Consciousness was published in 1969, 22 years before Consciousness Explained. Both of them had already "found their audiences" before those books were written, much less published. Further, Dennett has published many of his books with academic presses, where advances are rare. (Anyone know if MIT Press pays them?)
cthalupa 12y ago
Regarding the New Republic piece, I'm not sure I think his insurance analogy fits. With insurance (Particularly now, in the US), everyone can pay in and get it. With publishing, only a super select few ever get in, and those that do will get dropped if they get 'sick' and stay 'sick', regardless of whether or not they were 'healthy' when they got in.

Spooky23 12y ago

How do you discover books on there? Even when you know what you want, Amazon will make it difficult or impossible to figure out what you need. My wife enjoys a few popular fiction offers who publish different series of books. Amazon has no obvious way to search for a book in a series. Even used book thrift shops figure that out! Then you have the issue of third party listings cluttering up search results. If you want to buy a Mac Mini, you'd better be familiar with the Apple model numbers, because you may have a 3 year old model land at the top of the stack.

lmm 12y ago
> How do you discover books on there? Click "Recommended for you". Their "search for something specific" interface may have problems, but their "suggest me something new, I don't really know what" interface is top-notch.
- Spooky23 12y ago
  Their recommendation engine is good, but only for individual products. It also gets screwed up if you buy something in a profitable niche outside of your typical profile -- I bought a book once about a gay latino's life for a class and received lgbt and latino recommendations for years that were not very relevant to me. A pretty basic use case for people who read serial novels (ie. millions of people) is the ability to recommend a series or books within a series. People can down-vote me because Amazon is a cool company, but it's a use case that they just don't fulfill.
  - VLM 12y ago
    "recommendations for years that were not very relevant to me." You can go into recommendations and there's a drop down where you can tag why a recommendation is inappropriate, tell amazon it was a gift and the whole topic will magically, nearly instantly, disappear. I had the same issue with Thomas the Tank Engine and I'm not sure which of us had it worse. Its a UI failure in the checkout process, just because I don't want amazon to wrap my gifts for me doesn't mean that I'm buying something thats not a gift at checkout time. Its also a backend failure, come on Amazon lets think this one thru a bit, looking at the rest of my ordering history do you Really think I'm a big Thomas fan? Really? I mean he's cool, sure, but...

7952 12y ago

In terms of books I wonder if the average shopper on amazon is really thinking about books enough (compared to all the other products) for buzz to be generated. On my front page I have chilli sauce, bike spares, bluetooth headsets and automtive tools. I have found lots of books on Audible based entirely on popularity, and I am sure Kindle is the same. IMHO subscription services have far more power to push a particular title than a normal shop as you are a captive audience. You are much more likely to go for the serendipity of a popular title that may not appeal to you normally as you are not spending a cash amount. And with Audible there is no risk as you can return titles you don't like.