Amazon's Lending Library
I believe that Amazon's lending library scheme is seriously undermining the economic value of all literature. The company induces authors to submit their books to the company's lending program, by offering an arbitrary sum based on each borrowing. The author must remove the title from all other venues, such as the competitive Nook store at Barnes and Noble, and thus forgoes that income for at least three months.
Amazon's purpose, of course, is to build the loyalty of Kindle owners, by offering them freebies. They can "borrow" a title from the lending library with no due date. In other words, they get a book free, and supposedly become committed to Kindles, where there are endless books available for nothing at all. Why buy books at all?
There are numerous effects here. One is that this vast library of free books lessens demand for other books, thus lowering their value. Why buy anything if one can read endlessly for free? The other aspect is that the program milks the value of the title. When an author removes the title from the lending library and tries to sell it once again, he won't be able to do much with it, and may end up lowering the sale price down to virtually nothing. In other words, once a title is retrieved, it's more or less dead.
Unless an author is greatly in demand, or the book is a rare top-seller, the chances will be that the title is history, and has no value. Even though authors are making a few bucks out of the fund set by Amazon (and subject to change), they are ultimately facing the devaluation of their product.
We live in a time when intellectual property is losing value, in part because technology makes copyright nearly worthless. A book can be copied, transmitted, stolen, ripped off, and so can other sorts of intellectual property, such as music. But Amazon is worsening the process, using its almost monopolistic power in the digital world to lower the value of our products.
I am weighing whether or not to pull all my digital titles from Amazon, and thereby save their value to some extent for future sales. It may be too little and too late. Many authors have found that they can't sell their stories for a buck, or even for forty-nine cents. The economic value of most titles is effectively zero, and Amazon's doing its best to deprive authors of their long-term living.
Amazon's purpose, of course, is to build the loyalty of Kindle owners, by offering them freebies. They can "borrow" a title from the lending library with no due date. In other words, they get a book free, and supposedly become committed to Kindles, where there are endless books available for nothing at all. Why buy books at all?
There are numerous effects here. One is that this vast library of free books lessens demand for other books, thus lowering their value. Why buy anything if one can read endlessly for free? The other aspect is that the program milks the value of the title. When an author removes the title from the lending library and tries to sell it once again, he won't be able to do much with it, and may end up lowering the sale price down to virtually nothing. In other words, once a title is retrieved, it's more or less dead.
Unless an author is greatly in demand, or the book is a rare top-seller, the chances will be that the title is history, and has no value. Even though authors are making a few bucks out of the fund set by Amazon (and subject to change), they are ultimately facing the devaluation of their product.
We live in a time when intellectual property is losing value, in part because technology makes copyright nearly worthless. A book can be copied, transmitted, stolen, ripped off, and so can other sorts of intellectual property, such as music. But Amazon is worsening the process, using its almost monopolistic power in the digital world to lower the value of our products.
I am weighing whether or not to pull all my digital titles from Amazon, and thereby save their value to some extent for future sales. It may be too little and too late. Many authors have found that they can't sell their stories for a buck, or even for forty-nine cents. The economic value of most titles is effectively zero, and Amazon's doing its best to deprive authors of their long-term living.
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