October 16 article at NYT.com
It has set up a flagship line run by a publishing veteran, Laurence Kirshbaum, to bring out brand-name fiction and nonfiction. It signed its first deal with the self-help author Tim Ferriss. Last week it announced a memoir by the actress and director Penny Marshall, for which it paid $800,000, a person with direct knowledge of the deal said.
Publishers say Amazon is aggressively wooing some of their top authors. And the company is gnawing away at the services that publishers, critics and agents used to provide.
Several large publishers declined to speak on the record about Amazon’s efforts. “Publishers are terrified and don’t know what to do,” said Dennis Loy Johnson of Melville House, who is known for speaking his mind.
‘Publishers are terrified and don’t know what to do’
Be better?
Amazon isn’t fighting publishers, rather it’s just become one itself. So they need to treat it like any other publisher and be better. That that is not easy doesn’t really matter. They want to know what to do, that is it.
Maybe some publishers should get together and buy some bookstores?