Perhaps publishers aren’t used to being subjected to this sort of pressure until recently but they should now certainly realize that the days of themselves squeezing little bookshops are gone.

Kudos to amazon for flexing those muscles. I have been an amazon customer since 1996 and due to them I have been able to buy far more books than if I had been left to the traditional brick and mortar stores – whether chains or independent bookstores. I’m sure publishers have also made far more money off me than they would have had amazon not existed.

I also don’t believe it will be as easy for others to knock amazon off their pedestal as Peter suggests. Amazon has literally spent billions of dollars creating its warehouse/distribution operations in order to provide the sort of smooth customer experience they now provide. It’s not too likely there would be the same commitment on the part of shareholders to go thru that same number of years of profitless existence to recreate what amazon has built. But, retail is a funny game and you never can be sure what is going to happen.

I’m with Allan on the whole amazon/DRM thing. Despite all the talk you see on this blog and others that seem to blame amazon for driving the DRM mess and how it is a ploy to tie consumers to the Kindle the reality is that the publishers are almost assuredly the ones that require amazon to sell their titles with DRM.

To answer Roger – I still buy lots of books (and other stuff) from amazon. Both P and E. I don’t remember the last time I bought a new book anywhere else. When buying new books most other outlets seldom have prices cheaper than amazon when the free shipping I get as a Prime member is factored in. Given amazons wonderful distribution system I can get many of my books essentially overnight without having to pay extra for overnight shipping.

Used books I can occasionally find elsewhere for less – and usually Book Burro shows me that place is half.com/ebay. However, I will admit that I am a sucker for amazons 1-Click so I usually won’t bother unless the savings are significant.

Is there a chance that amazon may get “too big for its britches”? Sure, but I think people used to have the same concern about Wal-Mart. Both are retail giants and they understand that if they ignore the competitive pressures of the marketplace that somebody else very likely will try to at least skim away a chunk of their customer base.

I think once publishers get on board and truly embrace e-books as a viable (and profitable) model of content distribution that’s when we will see the power shift back towards the publishers.

I buy a lot from amazon, but rarely books. Amazon has great community features and good reviewing software, but does that imply they can sustain their market dominance?

The last thing I bought from Amazon.com is a printer.