• ADVERTISEMENT

    Mediatwits #25: The 800 Pound Gorilla of E-Books: Amazon

    by Mark Glaser
    October 28, 2011
    Amazon and you're done, especially if you're a small player in the book industry

    i-ed7356ca3ed527a55598e527830a5f35-CUNY-J LOGO.jpg

    The Mediatwits podcast is sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which offers an intensive, cutting edge, three semester Master of Arts in Journalism; a unique one semester Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism; and the CUNY J-Camp series of Continuing Professional Development workshops focused on emerging trends and skill sets in the industry.

    "If Amazon won't sell a book as a Nook book, then Barnes & Noble won't sell the print book in its stores." -Laura Hazard Owen

    Welcome to the 25th episode of “The Mediatwits,” the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift’s Mark Glaser and entrepreneur Rafat Ali. This week is the Beyond the Book series at MediaShift, and keeping with that theme the podcast is all about Amazon.com. Rafat admits to being a fanboy of Amazon, with 5 Kindles bought and 1 on order. Special guests Laura Hazard Owen from PaidContent and author James Altucher talk about the growing power and convenience of Amazon in the book business.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    On the plus side, Amazon delivers convenience, cheap prices and one-click online shopping. It also has lowered the prices for e-books and has a dead-simple Kindle e-reader, with the $199 Kindle Fire tablet on the way. But Amazon has also taken PR hits for its avoidance of sales taxes in many states, and the poor working conditions at a fulfillment center in Pennsylvania. On balance, is the book-selling behemoth doing a public service or harm?

    Check it out!

    ADVERTISEMENT

    mediatwits25.mp3

    Subscribe to the podcast here

    Subscribe to Mediatwits via iTunes

    Follow @TheMediatwits on Twitter here

    Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.

    Here are some highlighted topics from the show:

    Intro

    2:00: Origins of Rafat’s fanboy-dom

    4:45: Rundown of topics for show

    i-7a57c75247774e1320da1a6ed9a48cd7-laura-owen-headshot.jpg

    Laura Hazard Owen

    Amazon winning in e-readers, e-books

    6:20: Special guests Laura Hazard Owen and James Altucher

    8:10: Owen: Amazon takes a loss of $30+ on each Kindle Fire sold

    11:45: Altucher: Book publishers don’t do marketing for most authors

    14:10: Owen: Publishers still perform important role; self-publishing takes a lot of work

    18:45: Altucher: Publishers take too long to get books into circulation

    Amazon becomes a publisher

    19:45: Owen: Amazon now enabling self-publishers and acting as traditional publisher

    i-0dbd2dc9ec47f4a7d501f6a3735e66c9-james altucher.gif

    James Altucher

    21:00: Owen: Amazon will have trouble getting its books in bookstores because of past antagonistic relationships with them

    23:10: Apple has fallen short of Amazon with its iBooks

    PR trouble for Amazon

    24:10: Amazon avoiding taxes, hit by investigative report on working conditions at fulfillment center

    26:30: Owen: Amazon building many more fulfillment centers; should provide better working conditions

    29:10: Altucher: Average person doesn’t care about Amazon earnings, Kindle sales numbers

    More Reading

    Amazon Rewrites the Rules of Book Publishing at NY Times

    Amazon Kindle Sales Surge, but Expenses Smoke Profits at Adweek

    Amazon Reports a Sharp Decline in Income at NY Times

    Amazon’s Acquisition Of The Book Depository Gets Official OK at PaidContent

    Amazon Kindle Fire Sales Tracking to Hit 5 Million: J.P. Morgan at eWeek

    Kindle Fire Privacy Concerns—Is ‘Big Browser’ Watching You? at PaidContent

    Is Amazon Short-Changing Authors? at MediaShift

    Amazon is Nobody’s Friend, Part One at Hellnotes

    Inside Amazon’s Warehouse at the Morning Call

    5Across: Beyond the Book – E-Books and Self-Publishing at MediaShift

    Weekly Poll

    Don’t forget to vote in our weekly poll, this time about what you think about Amazon:


    Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit. and Circle him on Google+

    i-ed7356ca3ed527a55598e527830a5f35-CUNY-J LOGO.jpg

    The Mediatwits podcast is sponsored by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which offers an intensive, cutting edge, three semester Master of Arts in Journalism; a unique one semester Advanced Certificate in Entrepreneurial Journalism; and the CUNY J-Camp series of Continuing Professional Development workshops focused on emerging trends and skill sets in the industry.

    Tagged: amazon createspace e-books e-reader kindle kindle fire lulu self-publishing

    Comments are closed.

  • ADVERTISEMENT
  • ADVERTISEMENT
  • Who We Are

    MediaShift is the premier destination for insight and analysis at the intersection of media and technology. The MediaShift network includes MediaShift, EducationShift, MetricShift and Idea Lab, as well as workshops and weekend hackathons, email newsletters, a weekly podcast and a series of DigitalEd online trainings.

    About MediaShift »
    Contact us »
    Sponsor MediaShift »
    MediaShift Newsletters »

    Follow us on Social Media

    @MediaShiftorg
    @Mediatwit
    @MediaShiftPod
    Facebook.com/MediaShift