Recently, Amazon has been taking hits as a “monopoly,” specifically with regards to books. Despite CEO Jeff Bezos’ resemblance to Dr. Evil, I think he has a point: Are publishers really necessary?<\/p>\n
When one of my books makes money, the publisher rakes it in — many multiples of what I earn. And for eBook sales, that multiple is even higher. Where Amazon pays authors 70 percent, my publisher balks at any royalty higher than 10 percent. That’s outrageous!<\/p>\n
So, are book publishers really necessary in the digital economy?<\/p>\n
To some degree, I think so, but only when they respect the books. When a publisher uses a cheaper paper stock and tries to cut corners by outsourcing production and editorial, it shows that they’re about padding the bank account of their CEO and not serving the reader. Yet I believe that there’s value with publishers who truly treasure physical books.<\/p>\n