From an Avid Reader

Got this fun little rant and article (here) from an "Avid Reader" (doubtful). The gist of the article is that Amazon has the publishing industry in their sites. It's a good point. The money line?

"My hope is disgruntled publishing executives like the one above will quit their comfortable jobs at dysfunctional prehistoric companies and start innovating on the model. I don’t believe the public only wants books written by over-tanned drunks who go clubbing anymore than blog readers only want slideshows and posts on Apple. Someone will build the next great publishing imprint out of these ashes. And as a reader and an author, I can’t wait."

There is a long snippet taken from an anonymous publisher who rails about how he sees the war taking shape as Amazon continually redefines book pricing. This brought to mind the article in the WSJ a few weeks ago about how publishers are pricing some best sellers at hard bound book price levels because they say that the portability, and other advantages of e-book reading make up for the lack of printing and shipping expenses. This was driving folks find new authors with 99 cent titles.

I don't agree with the article. Conventional publishers are killing themselves. Amazon might be helping them hold the gun, but they're sticking the barrel in their own collective mouths and pulling their own triggers.