So this post will probably make your eyes roll back in your head, and not in a good way.
But if you are an indie publisher, it’s important for you to keep up with big industry news because even if it’s not directly related to us; it affects us.
So you’ve probably heard about the little DOJ lawsuit regarding the alleged collusion of Apple and several of the Big 6 publishers, which has resulted in a lack of competition in the ebook market and in artificially inflated ebook prices. Well, here’s the proposed final judgement on that, which has not been approved by the court. Warning it’s long, but at least read the intro. I’ll post it at the bottom of the page.
What it appears to boil down to is that steps have been proposed to ensure that the collusion among Apple and the other publishers stops.
What will it mean for the indie author if this is the final judgment? Will it be time to panic? Riot in the streets because real competition will have been restored (or should be) in the book world?
Heck no!
More competition benefits everyone. The lower the prices of Big 6 books, the more books people will buy because they have more money in their pockets after purchasing the latest Evanovich or Roberts.
If Amazon has Apple and the Big 6’s panties in a twist because they’re dominating the ebook market, then the way to fight back is not to collude and destroy competition. It’s to compete! In a competitive marketplace, everyone wins: authors, publishers, retailers, and readers. (Readers will benefit most of all because they will stop paying punitive prices.)
Response of Plaintiff United States to Public Comments on the Proposed Final Judgment