Amazon vs. Hachette – An Indie Author’s Thoughts | R.W. Ridley

I find little to add and nothing to refute about author R.W. Ridley’s comments here. Other than heart, clear-eyed pragmatism is what I admire most when deciding which step is the next right thing. Ridley’s got both. Most readers could care less when it comes to the print publisher’s mechanism. I don’t believe the desire for the visceral page—with its texture, its scent, its nurture—will ever be completely trumped by the e-book, despite any grand Amazonian e-dreams. But Ridley is dead right. Amazon will win. Lots of readers want bookstores with bookstacks to be meandered. Readers also want Amazon, which began by peddling books. And, whether they will admit it or not, a lot of readers today, well, they want Amazon more. A lot more. Not that bookstores are going away; in fact, their profits have seen a recent upswing, with a dollop of cream and nutmeg, and a cupcake on the side.

As to the titanic publishing houses and the creaking old publishing model, I will not sink into too much despair over this shuffle of the deck chairs. This cycle is old, it’s new, it’s Darwinian. Only them who best adapts will weather long enough to win the reader’s heart—and those three little digits on the backside.

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Amazon vs. Hachette – An Indie Author’s Thoughts | R.W. Ridley.