By Davida Gypsy Breier
Where Are We? How Did
We Get Here?
The following is my opinion, based
on known facts and personal experience. It is born out of frustration and
sorrow. I need to get this off my chest.
I’ve been involved in zines since
1994, with professional bookselling and publishing experience happening concurrently.
My book publishing experience has been diverse, but my focus has primarily been
distribution, marketing, and sales. I currently work for a large university
press.
I watched as chain bookstores took
over and killed off half of the independents. I saw Amazon emerge and begin
eroding the chains’ power, seemingly as savior for publishers. I was there when
Kindle began and I helped feed that gaping maw content. I was a bystander as
once-maligned “vanity publishing” was re-branded and sold to the same people as
vibrant “self-publishing.” I was witness to disruptive change from the inside.
Now, I sit here surveying the
current landscape of publishing and can see the damage that has been done to
books, to publishing, and even culture, and accept that I was (and perhaps
still am) complicit in the destruction.
Before I continue, I feel I should
declare my support of authors and publishers who would not have books or a
readership if not for Amazon. I do not in any way begrudge them. Amazon did
eliminate publishing’s gatekeepers and promoted an agenda of literary
democracy. On the surface it sounded great. In hindsight, there is a dark side.
The purpose of this essay is to provoke thought and discussion. To at least
consider the future we are all building.
It Could Have Been
Lamps
Amazon helped to destroy the
traditional gatekeepers to publishing (something zines have done for decades).
Amazon offers multiple publishing tools and visibility for publishers and
authors. They are one of the reasons self-publishing is now considered
mainstream. Authors are now discovered by algorithms and sales, not just
editors and agents. My concerns lie with Amazon’s motivations. Zines seek
readers, Amazon seeks customers (and their precious, monetized data). I’m not
saying that the old gatekeepers were right – many excellent books and authors
were ignored and deterred from publishing – but I am concerned that our
literary culture is being commoditized into sloppily written, downloadable “content”
that is produced with sales goals. Of course the same accusations could be made
of paper zines, except for the sales goals bit. I’ve never met one person who
expected to make a living off of his or her zines; zine publishers tend to
write for the sake of writing and to connect with readers. Amazon’s goals have
always been market domination and profit. Always.
Why did Amazon focus on books
instead of lamps or hammers if that was the goal? Because books are relatively
simple to mail and not breakable. Because the goal was the customer, not the
product. Publishing has been completely disrupted because books were easy to
ship.
Amazon arrived when publishing was
in trouble and it did seem like a savior to many. I remember when they were a
quiet account who bought non-returnable, paid on time, and made small
publishers’ books visible on their virtual store shelves. Brick-and-mortar
stores have limited shelf space, but Amazon was able to showcase all books –
new and old – and touted itself as “the everything store.” Small publishers
finally had a chance to compete against the major publishers. Older books
became discoverable. Chains, on the other hand, were demanding higher and
higher discounts, increased co-op (publishers have to buy those prime spots
near the front of the store), mainly carried new books, and often returned 30%
or more of what they bought (usually damaged). Compared to the chains, Amazon
did seem like an ally. The first hit was free.
Now, it is clear Amazon was mining
data, refining business models, and gathering strength. They intended to go
after both competitors and suppliers, with a propaganda-like mantra of
servicing the almighty customer. Publishers were openly referred to as gazelles
(to Amazon’s unnamed predator). They have been known to publicly remove buy
buttons to force publishers to capitulate. What we never know is the amount of
influence going on to manipulate books to the top of searches…or to the bottom.
They have fought and worked around tax laws – remember, local stores contribute
to the community. Amazon also touts the jobs they offer. The reality is that
they are anti-union, and warehouse jobs are under constant criticism for the
hours, stress, and conditions. Office jobs at Amazon sound even worse, and they
grind though young workers who either join the cult or move on in a matter of
months. I know many people who righteously boycott Wal-Mart, but happily shop
at Amazon. Explain the difference.
For the publishers I currently
represent Amazon accounts for 26% of net sales (FY2013). Amazon has grown so large
that publishers are now dependent, and Amazon has the power to dictate terms
and break backs. And books only account for 7% of Amazon’s annual revenues.
They figured out how to sell lamps and hammers, too.
Literature in Danger
So where does Amazon’s power end? I
don’t know, and that’s what scares me. The company controls the majority of
digital books sales and is now moving into additional media – movies, TV, and
music. Amazon’s megalomaniacal weirdo founder, Jeff Bezos, recently bought The Washington Post. Federal lawsuits
involving Amazon’s monopoly have come down in favor of the giant, under the
guise of consumer protection. Actually, monopoly isn’t the correct word,
monopsony is. It means that Amazon can dictate terms to its suppliers, and in
doing so, Amazon is now in a position to dictate popular culture. Publishers
have lost control of their content and many authors are now going it alone
intentionally. Books aren’t being published that should be published. This
passage from George Packer’s article on Amazon for The New Yorker rings true:
Several editors, agents, and authors told me that the money for serious
fiction and nonfiction has eroded dramatically in recent years; advances on
mid-list titles—books that are expected to sell modestly but whose quality
gives them a strong chance of enduring—have declined by a quarter. These are
the kinds of book that particularly benefit from the attention of editors and
marketers, and that attract gifted people to publishing, despite the pitiful
salaries. Without sufficient advances, many writers will not be able to
undertake long, difficult, risky projects. Those who do so anyway will have to
expend a lot of effort mastering the art of blowing their own horn. “Writing is
being outsourced, because the only people who can afford to write books make
money elsewhere—academics, rich people, celebrities,” Colin Robinson, a veteran
publisher, said. “The real talent, the people who are writers because they
happen to be really good at writing—they aren’t going to be able to afford to
do it.”
Ironically, Amazon is taking
self-publishing backward to a culture of vanity publishing!
Making Choices
Consumers now assume they have to
buy from Amazon. Authors watch their sales and rankings obsessively. People
think if the book isn’t available on Amazon it isn’t available. There are other
choices, but the drug of one-click shopping and free shipping has intoxicated
shoppers. Publishers have long since come down from their high of thinking that
Amazon is an ally.
For me personally, I stopped buying
books from Amazon a couple years ago and completely stopped all purchases a
year ago. I haven’t touched my GoodReads account since Amazon bought it. I
avoid funding projects using Amazon’s eCommerce system. I have found other
options. I choose not to support the bully. These are small, probably
pointless, economic protests on my part. What is more important is that I still
publish and promote zines. This zine you are holding does not commodify ideas
and words. Instead, it promotes community and tries to keep publishing’s
furnace of creativity and passion alight.
I hope that publishers and authors
who feel they need Amazon understand that Amazon does not need them. Once
Amazon has the content and the customer data, authors and publishers are
disposable. Much like sex-work is about the John, Amazon loves you, just leave
the cash on the dresser and get out.
I acknowledge that I am jousting at
windmills that I helped build. Ultimately, I mourn for publishing and where it
feels like it is headed. It isn’t the industry I joined 20 years ago. It makes
me doubly glad that I never left zines and that we have warded off many of the
detrimental changes.
Zinester Immunity
One thing I feel is important to
mention – many small publishers I have met are really authors who couldn’t find
a publisher to publish his or her book. Amazon gave them the ability to
self-publish and sell their books. They often cease being publishers as soon as
they have a book contract – they are authors at heart, not publishers.
Zinesters, on the other hand, seem to believe in the process – all of it. They
are authors, artists, publishers, and marketers, not just because of the
intrinsic DIY spirit, but because it is part of being a zine-maker. I think it
is this difference that sets zinesters apart and often makes us more immune to
the push and pull of consumerism. It is a process, not a product.
In the aforementioned New Yorker article, Andrew Wylie, an
agent, said, “What gave publishers the idea that this was some big goddamn
business? It’s not—it’s a tiny little business, selling to a bunch of odd
people who read.” I think that idea summarizes what I always loved about
publishing and continue to love about zines.
As zine-makers and zine-readers,
Amazon will never be able to compete with a LOC (letter of comment) as payment
or understand that giving a zine away for another zine makes perfect economic
sense. That $3.00 in the pocket of a zinester is lunch and a couple of stamps.
That as zinesters, publishing is still up to us and that we continue to invest
in our own future and community. As consumers, does supporting Amazon,
especially at the exclusion of other options and merchants, align with our
ethics? What do you think?
Recommended reading:
·
Merchants
of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century, By John
Thompson, 2012 (available in paperback and hardback)
·
The
Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon, By Brad Stone, 2013
(available in paperback and hardback)
