Books reality 101

From the Passive Voice ...

Here’s a bulletin to Publishers Weekly and the American Booksellers Association from the reality-based world:

- Amazon is one of the biggest successes in American business to arise during the last 20 years.

- Amazon is one of the most admired consumer brands among both businesspeople and consumers in the United States. By and large, Amazon customers love Amazon.

- Authors are moving toward self-publishing and away from traditional publishers in droves in large part because Amazon treats them well. Traditional publishers treat them poorly. Most bookstores treat indie authors poorly.

- Some indie bookstores are run by fine people, but a job working as an employee of a small independent bookstore is almost certainly a dead-end, low-wage career. A job working with Amazon, in a fulfillment center or otherwise, almost certainly pays better and offers much more opportunity for advancement than a job working in any bookstore, Barnes & Noble or indie.

- The book world is changing. Authors are being empowered as never before. You can probably benefit from the change if you want to, but the change will happen with or without you.

- Despite what you tell yourselves about printed books, readers like ebooks. Readers like lower ebook prices. Readers like wide ebook selection. Readers like being able to order a new ebook wherever they are and whenever they want a new book.

- Printed books will always exist, but as print runs grow smaller, prices will inevitably move higher.

- Hating on Amazon makes you look like a bunch of out-of-touch losers. It is absolutely the wrong way to respond to changes sweeping through the world of books.

UPDATE: PG just checked starting salaries for open fulfillment jobs at Amazon – the people who work in the warehouses, pulling orders and stuffing boxes. Depending on location, they ranged from $11-13.50 and include health insurance, stock plan, etc. He’s not an expert on bookstore jobs, but he thinks a whole lot of those begin at minimum wage with no benefits.