Amazon has already taken over the wholesale and bookstore roles, and is attempting to cut into the publishing part of the book selling spectrum. And wouldn’t you know it? The “underwhelming” Apple iPad and iBook Store stand to upend another industry in a way that is beneficial to publishers, authors, and consumers.
Charles Stross, a Macmillan author, describes the battle in Amazon, Macmillan: an outsider’s guide to the fight:
“…to customers, Amazon would like to be a monopoly (i.e. the only store in town). To suppliers, Amazon would like to be a monopsony (i.e. the only customer in town)”
“The agency model Apple proposed — and that publishers like Macmillan enthusiastically endorse — collapses the supply chain in a different direction, so it looks like: author -> publisher -> fixed-price distributor -> reader. In this model Amazon is shoved back into the box labelled ‘fixed-price distributor’ and get to take the retail cut only. Meanwhile: fewer supply chain links mean lower overheads and, ultimately, cheaper books without cutting into the authors or publishers profits.”
