How Amazon could force comics to go digital
Remember about a month back, we posted an article about Fox Networks and Time Warner Cable playing hardball over being carried?
Well, as of Friday books from Macmillan, including all sub-imprints like Tor books and St. Martin’s Press, have vanished from Amazon.com. According to the New York Times, the disappearance is the result of a disagreement
between Amazon.com
and book publishers that has been brewing for the last year. Macmillan,
like other publishers, has asked Amazon to raise the price of
electronic books from $9.99 to around $15. Amazon is expressing its
strong disagreement by temporarily removing Macmillan books.
Now with this as a precedent, let’s take it to the next level:
“Hello, DC Comics? Jeff Bezos here. Hey, how come we don’t have Batman: Black & White available for the Kindle yet?”
“Oh really? Do you know how many thousands of copies of Watchmen we sold for you last year? How many Batman and Sandman graphic novels? Don’t even get me started on Smallville DVD sets.”
“Let me spell it out for you. If we don’t start getting files for the Kindle by the end of this month, we’re going to stop selling the print editions of your books.”
Think it can’t happen? Are you sure?
I hardly think Amazon doing this would somehow force comics OUT of paper publishing though. And the kindle? COME ON. It's black and white. If comics take a bigger leap digitally, it'll be with the iPad, and color ebook readers. The kindle seems the least likely place for digital comics to end up. But then again, until a color kindle comes out, I still think printed comics are safe and sound. And there's no problem really in comics going digital. CDs are still on shelves. DVDs are still on shelves. … For now.
Force comics out of paper? Not for all. But consider:* how many comic stores are precarious enough that they can't handle another 15% drop in sales, particularly if they have to carry that inventory.* how many marginal comics are not going to be printed because orders simply aren't high enough to warrant a print run.Seriously– when was the last time you bought a music CD? A real, solid, shiny on one side CD?
Take a look at Cory Doctorow's comments on Boing Boing http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/29/amazon-and-m…As he points out, material purchased in ebook form to be read on the kindle can ONLY be read on the Kindle. Once you sell your soul to Amazon, it is theirs for life, unless you want to abandon all of your past purchases, or want to have multiple ebook reading devices.
Why the big push for paperless comics? Is it because you guys have online comics? They'll have to pry comics from my cold, dead hands. The day I have to buy a $500 device to read new comics is the day I stop and concentrate solely on back issues.
Well said. I read comics here, and I love this site, but I pine for the paper copies IDW has recently been publishing. I specifically didn't read the newest Jon Sable story here so it would be fresh to me when it was published.Still waiting for Black Ice, guys. I'll even buy two copies of every issue to make it worth your while.
Amazon blinked.