Here is another take on the Amazon cheetah’s pursuit of the wounded gazelle, Hachette. Much of what Wolff has to say is true, though I think his criticisms of traditional publishers is a little too harsh. The publishing industry has never been as efficient and as fast on its feet as, say, manufacturing electronics, because it’s never been, never will be, purely an industry. A book publishing firm is a business, but, like an opera company, an art galley, or a symphony orchestra, it’s also a cultural institution. Publishers are not, by nature or inclination, businesspeople as astute or ruthless as a Jeff Bezos. Yes, as Wolff points out, they make a lot of money putting out junk like Fifty Shades of Gray, but those earnings help to support more serious writers, as well as the discovery and development of new literary talent. At any rate, books are not commodities, like the other stuff Amazon sells, from T-shirts to sneakers to flat screen TVS.
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