Comments on: Net gatekeepers as progress-killers: Cory Doctorow on threats to writers and other creators

By: Steve Jordan

Steve Jordan — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:45:16 +0000

Not a surprising comment from Cory, as his focus is, as you’d expect, printed works by traditionally-”established” writers. When e-books are a significant product, Amazon and Google’s power over the industry will be marginalized by the web’s ability to globally redistribute services and allow anyone to sell from their own site, bypassing the middlemen represented by Amazon, Google, and anyone else you care to name.

Which will come first… e-book dominance… or Amazon’s and Google’s? We’ll see.

By: David Rothman

David Rothman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:34:07 +0000

Hi, Aaron. Ideally Google at least will be fairer than Amazon when it comes to splits with creators. What is it—70-30? Plus, Amazon’s corporacy is at least unwittingly hurting small guys, as shown by its handling of the paperback edition of — ——- ——–. It’ll be interesting to see if my publisher can straighten out the mess. If not, perhaps she’ll have to stop offering Kindle and Mobi versions through Amazon. However much I love e-books, I can’t stand the thoughts of my paperback being hidden in favor of something in Amazon’s pet formats. Great example of gatekeepers at work!

Thanks,
David

By: Aaron Pressman

Aaron Pressman — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:25:24 +0000

All I can say is HUH? It seems like Google and Amazon are following a strategy of blowing open the gates to creative material, not restricting or limiting what’s available. And I don’t see the monopoly on content. Is this better or worse than the 1990s when Barnes & Noble and Borders littered the land with their superstores and put thousands of great local bookstores out of business?