Hachette/Amazon

Thesetwo companies are really going nuclear just now. Amazon wrote a letter to all its Kindle published authors, asking them to write to Hachette for being nasty, and Hachette’s boss has written to all of those who have written to him (be interesting to know how many) with a fairly straightforward response.

So who is right?

Amazon is saying that they want all books to have their prices reduced. Who will that help? Perhaps it’ll do something for publishers in terms of additional sales, but I rather doubt it. The additional sales will be more than outweighed by the reduced amount paid.

I have to say that from an author’s perspective, I do not understand why Amazon should deserve such a large cut of my money. They are trying to impose retail prices, which is fine – but they are fully entitled to charge what they want already. If they want to discount further for the benefit of their customers, I am perfectly happy for them to do so. But not if that means reducing my income still further.

The basic problem is, authors have already seen incomes slashed by 29% in the last seven years, partly as a result of Amazon’s aggressive policies towards suppliers.

Amazon are keen to say that the publishers and authors should share 35% each, and let Amazon take 30%. They are most kind. The reason for this is to drive a wedge between publishers and authors. Actually, it would seem to make more sense to me to see 70% to authors and 15% each to publisher and retailer. Or maybe 90% to authors, or … But that would be greedy.

However, there is a point to all this: who does all the work to get a book to the reader?

The author does rather a lot. The story is the author’s, the characters, the plots, the excitement, the sadness, the humour – that is all the author’s.

However, as you will tell if you spend much time glancing at the free books on ebook, authors on their own often don’t always come up with particularly good ideas. Editors are not a luxury, they are essential to the publication of good books of any sort. And once the editor’s had her say, there is the copy editor, and the proofer. They all have crucial jobs that help make your reading experience more pleasant.

And then there are the artists, and the designers, the folks who make sense of my hand-sketched maps, the poor benighted devils who try to take my lines and turn them into decent PR material … and they need the support services of computer experts, the electricity that feeds the computers and the lighting systems, the buildings that house the photo-copiers, and there are the receptionists and telephone operators, even the security chaps on the front desk.

Publishers have all these expenses. And they are valid. And they also produce books on paper which may not make much money. And sometimes some publishers will still take on new authors for no other reason than that the editor sees something in that book, and perhaps the second book, and sees a developing skill that is worth nurturing, some basic talent that just needs a little money and practice for a couple of years, and then the author might turn into another Ian Rankin. Good publishers take risks.

Authors take massive risks.

We have no say in how much our books sell for; we have no say in discount structures; we have no control over our income at all.

Retailers have staff and buildings too.

Perhaps it is time for publishers and retailer (Amazon is effectively a monopoly now, after all) to sit down and argue terms and conditions together.

And authors should be present to make sure our interests are not thrown away.

Lots of lovely books!

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