CheetahCagedIn the past thirty-odd years, the American economy has been dominated by the red-in-tooth-and-claw brand of capitalism. One business that had — until now — escaped the worst effects of unmuzzled free enterprise was the publishing industry, even though media conglomerates swallowed independent publishers and chain booksellers did to independent bookstores what HomeDepot has done to the neighborhood hardware store.

But now Amazon (how appropriate its name!) has brought jungle economics to all of us involved in the writing, publishing, and selling of books. Also to those of you who buy and read them.

Amazon’s corporate culture, as formulated by its CEO, Jeff Bezos, seems to be that of the zero-sum game: For me to win, you must lose. As reported in the May 24 editions of the New York Times, Bezos and his pride of digital predators are “holding books and authors hostage on two continents by delaying shipments and raising prices.”

Bezos himself has said that Amazon should go after vulnerable publishers “the way a cheetah would pursue a sickly gazelle.”

The gazelles at the moment are Hachette and the Bonnier Media Group in Germany. Hachette, owned by the French conglomerate, Lagardere, is the fourth largest publisher in the U.S., and Bonnier is one of the biggest media companies in Europe. Despite their size (sickly wildebeests maybe?) they are prey, and the Amazon cheetah is going for their throats. It’s delaying shipment of books by Hachette and Bonnier authors by as much as four to five weeks. In some cases, it’s making it altogether impossible for consumers to buy their books. In other cases, like that of a best-selling Hachette novelist I know, Amazon is encouraging its customers to buy novels similar to his from other publishers.

What Amazon is trying to do with such tactics is to corner the e-book market by extorting ever higher payments from traditional publishing houses. Those that don’t fork over what amounts to protection money, like the two aforementioned, get punished. (Vito Corleone pioneered this business model). If that means driving the publishers into bankruptcy, well, that’s life in the Darwinian world.

A friend of mine in the industry told me that at Amazon’s Seattle offices, “champagne parties are held whenever they hear that a competitor has gone out of business.”

If you want more details, here’s the link to the full Times story: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/23/amazon-escalates-its-battle-against-hachette/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=O.

“American literature will suffer if Amazon is allowed to get away with this,” said my industry friend. “Writers need traditional publishers to edit and market their books.”

In other words, without traditional publishers, in an environment monopolized by Amazon, writers will become mere “content providers,” their books just more stuff to peddle alongside T-shirts, CDs, kitchen gadgets, and whatever else is for sale in the online bazaar. And the book consumer will be at mercy of a monopoly power.

Tea Partiers keep whining and windging that too much government is intruding into our lives. How about too much corporate influence? I for one am sick of our lives being ruled by corporate mandarins who buy our politicians, break laws, and get off scot free. What concerns me is the possibility, maybe the likelihood, that after Amazon digests Hachette and Bonnier, it will run down my publishers (Henry Holt, a division of MacMillan) should they balk at Amazon’s demands. Then it might be my books suffering from delayed shipments, or worse. In fact, not long ago, Amazon briefly made trouble for MacMillan in a confrontation: the online retailer stripped the “buy” buttons from MacMillan books.

I don’t see a whole lot of difference between what Bezo’s Amazon is doing now and what John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil did a hundred years ago. A good case can be made that its actions violate the Sherman Antitrust Act. I urge the Author’s Guild, PEN, the American Society of Journalists, and other writers’ organizations to file an antitrust suit against Amazon.

Publishers, beginning with Hachette and Bonnier, should join the legal action. Meanwhile, they ought to form a united front and simply stop shipping titles to Amazon. Send them to independent bookstores, or to the two big remaining chains, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million. They’d be delighted with the added business.

And I urge editors, book lovers, and my fellow writers everywhere to boycott Amazon. Don’t order books from the cheetah. Get off your duffs and away from your laptops and devices and go to your local bookstore. You might find it a pleasant experience to browse among physical books and talk to real human beings without having to give your user name and password. And if you want an E-reader, buy a Nook or Sony.

Discover more from Philip Caputo

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading