Comments on: Note to Overdrive: Make a Deal with Amazon Publishing http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/note-to-overdrive-make-a-deal-with-amazon-publishing/ the neverending reference interview of life Sat, 07 Dec 2013 00:16:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Andromeda http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/note-to-overdrive-make-a-deal-with-amazon-publishing/#comment-6345 Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:03:17 +0000 https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/?p=1347#comment-6345 I’m not even convinced they are a middle man. For them to really be one, libraries would have to be more active in negotiating their end of the deal — exerting pressure on what the contracts on the other end look like. Well. Cranky rant elided here, I guess.

Not convinced libraries would be happier about an Amazon-only solution than a not-Amazon-but-sort-of-some-others solution., though.

Also, if Overdrive is thinking clearly, they might see cutting a deal with Amazon as a quick step to being Amazon’s bitch. I mean, if cutting a deal with Amazon substantially increases the likelihood that your other suppliers will cut you off…you’d be staring down the barrel of Amazon being your only major supplier, which is to say, Amazon owning you. Certainly a lot of publishers and booksellers are terrified of Amazon’s increasing dominance in the space, hence increasing ability to simply dictate terms of the whole supply chain. If I were Overdrive I don’t know that I’d be so keen on giving them that kind of power over me. (Unless, I guess, I had a long-term plan of “get bought by Amazon”. Maybe.)

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By: Andy http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/note-to-overdrive-make-a-deal-with-amazon-publishing/#comment-6344 Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:48:09 +0000 https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/?p=1347#comment-6344 That’s a fair point, but considering they are the middle man in this equation (as you point out), if libraries would be more likely to buy (and buy more) from Amazon than other publishers, then they are just giving their customers what they want, right? They’ll just be cutting off another revenue stream for themselves and alienating readers. But why should that matter?

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By: Andromeda http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/note-to-overdrive-make-a-deal-with-amazon-publishing/#comment-6343 Mon, 05 Mar 2012 02:03:51 +0000 https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/?p=1347#comment-6343 Given how incredibly twitchy other publishers are about Amazon — I mean, isn’t the Penguin withdrawal from Overdrive generally assumed to be a response to Kindle lending? — I assume that Overdrive actually cutting a deal with Amazon publishing would result in most of the rest of its publishers, possibly all of the Big 6, immediately axing their contracts. How libraries feel about it is beside the point — Overdrive’s the one negotiating those contracts, and if you were Overdrive, would you really want that to happen?

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By: Andy http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/note-to-overdrive-make-a-deal-with-amazon-publishing/#comment-6340 Sun, 04 Mar 2012 21:20:55 +0000 https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/?p=1347#comment-6340 Oh, neat! I hadn’t seen that announcement! Very good to know and something else to consider for how to spend any eBook budget money.

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By: Kristin http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/2012/03/04/note-to-overdrive-make-a-deal-with-amazon-publishing/#comment-6338 Sun, 04 Mar 2012 20:31:53 +0000 https://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/?p=1347#comment-6338 Ha – I just blogged a similar thought yesterday after reading that self-publishing site Smashwords has signed a distribution agreement with Baker & Taylor’s eBooks platforms:

http://www.fontichiaro.com/activelearning/2012/03/02/a-tale-of-two-ebook-vendors-who-will-libraries-support/

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