I’ll Trade You Boardwalk for Hilary Mantel

By • Feb 1st, 2010 • Category: 26th Story, Book News and Publishing, Books, Business

Of all the many remarkable things to notice about the exchange between Amazon and Macmillan this past weekend, perhaps the most remarkable, at least from a linguistic point of view, is Amazon’s use of the word “monopoly” in their message to their customers yesterday. Yes, the company that has frightened the book business so badly with its attempt to create a closed system for e-book delivery on its Kindles said that Macmillan had a “monopoly on its titles.”  This nasty monopoly of Macmillan’s was forcing Amazon–now the David to Macmillan’s Goliath–to “capitulate.”

Whatever your point of view on this, the use of “monopoly” to describe a publisher’s control of its content is a bit overheated, no?  Maybe we can go back to calling it what we used to in the old days: “copyright.”

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  • http://www.donaldlafferty.com/about Don Lafferty

    Amazon's statement was a joke. It's hard to believe somebody actually signed off on it.

  • Mandy

    Yes, I noticed that, too! It seems as if their statement was aimed at the general consumer who doesn't know much about publishing and, therefore, “monopoly” was used for its negative connotations.

  • http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/ Dan Schawbel

    Publishers are scared of losing control of their content and taking in less revenue, when the exact opposite will make publishers survive the future. Selling more books at a lower price is how it's going to be and the platforms will always change to reach a larger audience at a lower cost.

  • michelle

    Hi Bob,
    how are you?
    I'm a writer and would love to contact the harper studio in regards to submitting my manuscript and book ideas for consideration.
    Can you please tell me how I can do so with your company?

    Thanks,
    Michelle
    m.tchea@gmail.com

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