Why the DOJ, Amazon, and Congress Need to Fight in the Hunger Games

Okay. So maybe we need to throw in the states Attorneys General.  With the twist that no one comes out of the arena alive.

Here's why this latest firestorm (or any other kind of storm you want to call it) scares me:

I don't purport to know every nuance and detail about this whole mess.  But this seems to sum it up pretty well.

Well, and this:

And this:

I'm sure there will be a lot of posts on this from literary agents, editors, and other publishing professionals/insiders in the coming days.  I'm looking forward to seeing the different takes on it and I will eventually actually sit down and read the anti-trust filing.  It's certain to appear in Publisher's Weekly and/or Shelf Awareness sometime soon.  They'll shed some good light on the scenario.  Meanwhile, you might want to check out some articles on C|Net:

DOJ Announces 3 E-book Settlements...But not With Apple by Declan McCullagh
Why E-books Cost So Much by Nathan Bransford
What's the Future of E-book Pricing? by David Carnoy

If you have a link to a good article about it, please share it in the comments.  I may add to this list throughout the coming days and weeks.  This is a very important issue and one which seems likely to have more impact on debut and mid-list authors than on the big names or any celebrities who might go publish a book as a whim.

Editing to add in some more tweets from the publishing world.

This is what I mean by having more impact on debut and mid-list authors. Those authors whose next book sale relies heavily on consumer sales of existing books.



Edit: This morning Twitter was again ablaze with this news.  I have a couple more links for you all, links which I will be reading through today myself.

A Few Things Become Clearer in the Settlement from Publisher's Weekly
This is the link in the tweet to the left, I believe.


Everything You Need to Know About the E-Book DOJ Lawsuit in One Post This one is updated frequently.

Editing to add: Here's a link to Writer Beware Blogs' Overview of the Lawsuit

So, what really really scares me in all this is the devaluation of creation.  I think it's time we send all these government goons into the arena with naught but a few swords and ninja stars.

And this is what I mean by devaluation of creation:

I spend my days educating the people around me through casual conversations about the life of a writer.  They're always surprised at how long it takes to write a book, how slow the publishing process is, and just how difficult an industry it is to break into as a debut author.

A book can be just as immersive and powerful an experience as a movie, yet we no longer value them the same? That seems incredibly backward to me.