Size Doesn't Matter in Publishing | The Passive Voice

From Digital Book World:

The announcement of a proposed merger between Random House and Penguin publishers has generated quite a stir, because it would create the largest publisher in America.?Many people believe?that this merger is meant to give the two publishers increased leverage to negotiate book prices and financial terms with Amazon. However, in the publishing industry, size doesn?t matter.

I?can appreciate a publisher?s desire to minimize Amazon?s influence. But, there is a fundamental flaw with trying to compete against Amazon using a merger strategy. No matter how big a publisher gets, Amazon still controls direct access to the consumer. And, the one who goes direct to the consumer ultimately wins. All of the Big Six publishers could merge into one giant entity, but that wouldn?t prevent Amazon from maintaining leverage.

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In order for publishers to compete against Amazon, merging into a large conglomerate won?t work. Instead, publishers must learn to beat Amazon at its own game?master direct-to-consumer marketing. Notice I didn?t say direct-to-consumer ?selling.? Selling books directly to readers is a different situation.

. . . .

There is nothing preventing publishers from marketing direct-to-consumer?other than their misplaced focus on creating headlines through big mergers.

Link to the rest at Digital Book World

Passive Guy would add that direct-to-consumer marketing is a much different way of doing business than the way a typical big publisher does business.

Obsessively focusing on customers is not something you put on like eye shadow. It has to be driven deep into the corporate culture. Over and over again, the organization has to sacrifice short-term profit for the longer-term goal of developing deep and lasting relationships with customers. Look at Amazon for examples.

From PG?s experience with international media conglomerates, the idea of screwing up next quarter?s numbers for something as nebulous as improved customer relations does not compute.

Big Publishing

Source: http://www.thepassivevoice.com/11/2012/size-doesnt-matter-in-publishing/

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