...from the chief editor of a Midwestern university press who asked not to be identified. (This is understandable. Half the art of dealing with the 800-pound gorilla in the room may be keeping from drawing too much attention to yourself.)
"...Amazon is a predatory corporation — maybe not in a strictly legal sense of the word, but in practice, a shark. And swimming with sharks is dangerous."
He noted last week’s announcement of an arrangement between Amazon and the powerful literary agent Andrew Wylie, who has launched a new digital imprint for his clients. Their e-books will be available exclusively for Amazon’s e-reader, the Kindle -- cutting publishers out entirely.
“As the recent agreement with Andrew Wylie demonstrates,” the editor told me, “Amazon is willing to go against its ‘partners’ — their term of art — whenever it chooses, and the fact that they're publishing Kindle editions directly from authors to readers underscores the contempt with which they hold publishers.”
<idle musing>
They are all about profits. Period. If it makes money, do it. Period. As I repeatedly tell people, if money is your god, you will do anything to serve that god.
Sure, a company needs to make money to survive; it's a necessary, but not sufficient in itself, condition; refer back to the Drucker quote from last Friday for what I mean.
</idle musing>
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