MacMillan vs Amazon Pt 3: Fallout

It's Friday and yeah, of course I'm running late for work.

I was wondering: do you read less blogs now that you're twittering and Facebooking? Do you find that you write fewer posts?

I mean, everyone is twittering with their phones in 140 words or less everything they're doing at all hours of the day--standing in line, stuck in traffic, checking out people while shopping, in the theatre while watching the freaking movie!--so by the time one gets to blogging, thre is obviously nothing left to say. Is there?

I don't twitter or Facebook as much as my friends because of my work, but yeah, I "talk" a lot while watching TV shows because it's fun to comment about the scene along with a million other people. Now I'm wondering that this could mean the end of live-blogging of the NOSCARS (Nascar & Oscars) for this blog because who would be reading my musings when thousands would be online doing their live tweets about the show?

Things change, yes?

Yet things remain the same because we're still watching TV, only differently. We're still hooked to that remote.

So, to make a quick and not-so-deep comparison, things are changing in the publishing world but they are still the same and will be the same for as long as we love reading. There are flame wars being fanned by many online that seem to thing the end is near, that nobody is going to be able to afford to read anymore due to the price of ebook hiking.

MOST ebooks are still cheaply priced. Samhain ebooks are still affordably under $9. And, if you go to many of the publishers' sites, they're giving away bundles of ebooks for free to promote their authors, as well as selling backlists quite cheaply too.

I'm not saying $12.99 or $15.99 is a good price for ebooks. Not at all. I don't think it's sustainable, but the PTB at big publishing companies want to save their hardcovers and the brick-and-mortar booksellers from dying. Because you know, less brick-and-mortar, more likely big publishing company may go under. Already, Borders is in deep doo-doo, and if it goes, one less place for us booklovers from which to puchase our books.

I also don't believe in dumping, the act of artificially setting a low price for a period of time to kill off competition. Walmart, I'm looking at you. If you aren't aware of how dumping works, just look at the disappearance of all the small businesses around town, or just google about Walmart dumping and try to figure out why there are always demonstrations from locals fighting a new Walmart from being built.

Yes, yes, yes, the convenience of shopping and the cheap pricing are always the argument brought forth by shoppers. I have nothing against that. I shop at Walmart too. But you have to admit that many of us have lost the choice of not shopping there. Besides going to the big malls or a shopping center, there are just no more local shops, who might have offered better and certainly, in many cases, more superior products.

So, meanwhile, as the publishing world turns, just as when the One-Stop-Shopping Box turns, certain elements suffer. In the One-Stop Shopping Box example, small businesses had to adjust, change, or go out of business. It's a slow process. Some became good at adapting their prices, even became niche markets. So that could be what the publishers have to go through before things settle down in the book world.

And things will. Prices might go higher, but that don't mean MacMillan wouldn't take them down. They're all about profit and if their decisions don't make them money, they'll rethink their strategy. No matter what, you will see many changes, some of no interest to many of you, dealing with insiders like agents, authors, and other industry players.

Meanwhile, reading will continue. Can I also add that borrowing from the library is a good thing, so stop making those threats. Libraries need our support too.

As of writing, authors writing under the MacMillan umbrellas are still unable to find their books for sale through Amazon. So that war is still going on. If you would like to hear how this affects their sales, here is an interview of Tor authors at Bloggasm:

Tor Authors Express Worry

Hopefully, not too many authors will be put out of business because of this, especially those with debut books whose numbers will be affected. God knows how I understand what numbers affected by Walmart not selling/distributing a book could do to a career. God, do I understand.

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