From Publishing Perspectives:
For years, many in the publishing industry of the United States and other parts of the world have wanted to see Amazon examined by American governmental regulators for potential anti-competitive practices.
And, as various elements of Washington’s apparatus now address issues in terms of the major tech platforms, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) today (June 27) is filing a 12-page statement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging the commission to more closely scrutinize the behavior of dominant online platforms that “pervade every aspect of the economy.”
And while we find 12 references to Google in AAP’s commentary, it will surprise few in the book business that Amazon is mentioned 33 times.
Today’s filing from the Washington-based AAP, in fact, references that Streitfeld article from the Times’ June 23 edition, though not the Amazon answer, and is responsive to the FTC’s hearings near the close of a long cycle called “Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century” and frequently touching on privacy concerns—often, of course, the entry point to debate and examination relative to tech corporations’ focus on consumer data.
. . . .
Today, in a prepared statement drawn from the commentary and released to the news media last evening for publication this morning, AAP president and CEO Maria A. Pallante is quoted, saying, “Unfortunately, the marketplace of ideas is now at risk for serious if not irreparable damage because of the unprecedented dominance of a very small number of technology platforms.
Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives
PG suggests that any supposition that Amazon’s publishing activities and its self-publishing platform aren’t viewed as a serious threat by traditional publishing would be rebutted by the strong opposition by legacy publishing’s chief lobbying organization.
PG doesn’t think this organization would be complaining so much if Amazon was just the largest bookseller in the US and many other places in the world.
Didn’t we see this title a few days ago?
Trad-pub loves Amazon selling their books – what they hate is that Amazon will sell indie books right up there next to theirs – and often for better prices.
And they hate that they can’t promote something as a ‘best seller’ because Amazon will give the readers the book’s true sales ranking at Amazon.
And let’s not even get started about those blasted ebooks! The qig5 and apple’s little agency game backfired quite nicely (DoJ came down on ‘them’, not Amazon) and now they price themselves out of the market while indie and self publishers are making a killing.
“PG doesn’t think this organization would be complaining so much if Amazon was just the largest bookseller in the US and many other places in the world.”
Agreed. What’s upsetting them is all that indie/self-pub profit that they’re not getting what they feel is their due out of.
Well, their sales have been flat-to-declining all century long while Indie and audio publishers are growing so they think that is money that “by rights” belongs to them. Hence their hostility to Indie and rights grabs of audio.
(And yes, this flew by last week.)
Translation to English from NewSpeak: