Facts Recap
The outburst of the IT revolution and the expansion of the newest technologies into nearly every sphere of human life has changed the way we live. There is no need to leave the house to buy whatever we need whether it be food, clothes or books. The transition towards electronic commerce and electronic books has changed the publishing industry because many traditional ways of doing business have become history. That said, it led to increasing tensions in the publishing world especially when it came to the distribution of both print and electronic books provoking what can be referred to as e-book wars. The primary matter of concern is the rising influence of Amazon at the book distribution market.
One of such battles was between Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It started when Barnes & Noble, one of the US publishing houses and book retailers, ceased to sell Amazon-published titles to their stores (Herther, 2012). The underlying reason for the conflict is that Amazon positions itself as the company that has the exclusive rights for working with particular authors or particular publishers. That said, other retailers do not have the right to sell the same books. As time passed and up to today, Barnes & Noble cannot compete with Amazon because it does not have the customer base like the latter. What is even more troubling, it cannot overcome Amazon’s e-book reader, Kindle, in its functionality (La Monica, 2015).
Wise Enough
Amazon is an influential distributor of both print and electronic books. It has been known as the company that has the exclusive rights to work with particular authors and publishers by signing licensing agreements implying that Amazon Publishing “acquires, edits, markets and publicizes books” (Krug, 2012, p. C4). That is why many other book distributors and publishers see it as a bad partner to work with or even as a predatory publisher. The reason is obvious – the company does not resell these rights, so its influence in the book distribution marketplace grows and it is monopolistic in some segments. The question here is how wise was Amazon in getting into publishing in addition to retailing.
I believe that even though Amazon is thought of as the egotistical company, the decision to go into publishing was wise enough, because, in the economic world, nobody is bound to think of the competitors. Why not grow and develop if you have an opportunity and, what is even more important, resources to do so? Of course, Amazon had some advantages from the government as it avoided paying most sales taxes (Herther, 2012), but the fact of the matter is that it is wise management that helped it gain its current positions.
The Best Choice
Working with Amazon has many advantages for both experienced authors and those who had no previous relations with editors or publishers. In the case of the popular authors with a successful relationship with traditional publishers, the only matter of concern might be signing the agreement granting Amazon the exclusive rights for publishing and selling the book, so I would choose to work with the company without signing it.
If I were a popular author, there is no reason to limit the distribution with such agreements because people will buy the book anyway. On the other hand, if I were an author without the experience of relations with traditional editors and publishers, I would prefer Amazon with all its requirements for further cooperation. The reason for such a decision is obvious – with the customer base and the influence in the marketplace the company has, it is much easier to become known than with other publishers.
Further Options
Barnes & Noble is not only a publisher and a book distributor. It is also a manufacturer of e-books and tablets under the brand Nook produced by Nook Media LLC. The company started with producing black-and-white electronic book readers and went on to color tablets. However, it lacks resources to compete with more influential manufacturers such as Apple or even reach better positions in the distribution market and compete with Amazon (Herther, 2012).
Nowadays, Barnes & Noble suffers from a constant drop in e-sales and is nearly destroyed by Amazon. The reason for such a condition is that, unlike Amazon, it does not have a permanent customer base (Trachtenberg, 2014). In addition to that, the company that traditionally was a physical distributor of books faced numerous challenges resulting from the need to move to the dimension of the electronic commerce.
Even though it was luckier than other publishers that invested into producing e-book readers but went bankrupt (Turner, 2012) and managed to find necessary funds to invest in the Nook business (Gelles, 2014), nowadays the company is not successful enough and cannot compete with Amazon. One of the feasible solutions, to my mind, is acquisition with Amazon. I believe it is worth attention because, first, the company does not already control its Nook business, as 51 percent of shares belong to G Asset Management (Gelles, 2014) and, second, it cannot find resources necessary to launch the needed changes in the e-segment of activities. Finally, in the case of the acquisition with Amazon, it would get access to the company’s customer base and would not need to compete with Kindle.
References
Gelles, D. (2014). Barnes & Noble receives conditional offer. The New York Times, B2. Web.
Herther, N. K. (2012). The E Book Wars: Amazon versus the rest. Searcher, 20(4), 20-23, 26-30. Web.
Krug, N. (2012). Amazon books getting no shelf space. The Washington Post, C4. Web.
La Monica, P. R. (2015). Barnes & Noble has been destroyed by Amazon. CNN Wire Service. Web.
Trachtenberg, J. A. (2014). Corporate news: Barnes & Noble posts profit as digital device sales tumble. Wall Street Journal, B4. Web.
Turner, K. (2012). Independent retailers turn page on business. McClatchy – Tribune Business News. Web.