THE CHEAT SHEET. The death of the publisher as we know it

Not exactly. It’s more to do with an ongoing spat between Amazon and Hachette.

It’s complex as both sides are not revealing details. But from what’s reported in the media, it appears to be a wrangle over a revenue-share contract on e-books. Amazon, as you may know, is the world’s biggest online bookseller and reportedly controls about 50 per cent of book sales in the US and strongly influences book sales in most parts of the world. Hachette is one of the top five publishers in the world.

Industry observers say Amazon wants to have a free hand in fixing the prices of Hachette’s e-books. Basically, it wants to discount prices as and when it wants to. In the case of physical books, this might seem okay since a physical product is involved in each sale. Amazon buys from Hachette or any publisher for that matter, and sells at the price it wants to. Both the content and the medium (the book) matter here. But when it comes to e-books, where only one master product is made and copies of which are sold, this logic might not apply. The publisher, Hachette in this case, wants to have a bigger slice of revenues from the sale of content. But Amazon feels this affects its ability to offer products at lower prices tags. So to make its case stronger, it resorted to some pressure tactics, and received a decent amount of backlash.

A few weeks ago, it decided to delay delivery of some Hachette titles. This created an uproar as the publisher boasts an impressive cast of writers — from JK Rowling (in her detective avatar ) and Stephenie Meyer to Malcolm Gladwell. Amazon even offered Hachette authors 100 per cent profits on e-book sales. Obviously, Hachette is losing sales, while Amazon is being accused of being a bully. But Amazon says all it wants is a better deal for its customers.

Not quite. There’s a larger context. It is a pointer to what awaits most publishers in the digital age. As more people turn to e-books, publishers are forced to find new ways to make money because e-books sell cheaper than p-books (physical books). Books now account for nearly 27 per cent of all adult trade sales in the US, up from 23 per cent in 2012. So you know what I mean.

Also, in the digital era, the role of a traditional publisher is changing. Whether publishers understand this reality or not is a matter of debate. Today, an author can use digital tools to compose her work, employ cloud-based services or freelance experts to edit her copy and get it vetted by a professional manuscript taster or literary agent, publish it on e-publishing platforms, including that of Amazon, and sell across markets using e-sellers like Amazon or Flipkart.

Reminds of of Roland Barthes, who spoke of the death of the author. But here, the arrival of the ‘new author’ — who commands more control over what his writing earns — is also heralded. In this transofrmation from papyrus to pixel, publishing as we know it is bound to die. Digital publishing and selling pose several new challenges to publishers. They have to change and bring in new revenue models or perish. That’s why many believe the Amazon-Hachette tussle affects everyone associated with reading books. It seems Hachette is not the only major publisher in talks with the e-tail behemoth.

Last week, it was reported that another publishing biggie, Simon & Schuster, was also in talks with Amazon over similar contracts. So expect more fireworks in the coming days.

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