“Amazon becomes the ultimate clearing house for books of all kinds (and much else besides), with none of the traditional middlemen getting a look in. Genius. If you’re an agent, publisher, wholesaler, or retailer of books and you haven’t just soiled your undies, then you don’t understand what’s going on.”
- Timo Hannay, Nature Publishing Group’s director of web publishing
No, Timo, you’re wrong. And so badly wrong that I wonder whether you’re not the one who’s dreadfully misunderstood things.
Yes, it makes sense for Amazon to compete with Lulu, AuthorHouse and all the rest of those “nice†vanity online publishers (i.e. the ones that don’t rip off authors… much).
But - excuse me - when was the last #1 bestseller that Lulu or AuthorHouse generated? Maybe it happened while I was on holiday…
The web is absolutely changing the face of publishing, without a doubt.
But when you get Web 2.0 People (I guess that includes you, Timo) making silly and hopelessly over-hyped statements like this, then it simply makes all web people look naïve and exaggeration-prone. And over-statement has always been the Achilles heel of the internet and its boosters.
I feel a bubble coming on…
