This simply means that the authors were going to start suffering. How? Instead of an author earning royalties off, say thirteen books, they could only earn royalties off their most recent title.

Many authors witnessed years of their work vanishing along with bookstores that normally supported them.

The change meant a drastic pay cut, but it also meant these authors had no reliable backlist to turn existing fans into future fans. There was no longer a way to earn their way into household name status.

It was formulated to FAIL.

Now fans had to go search for the authors work that they so admired in used bookstores or garage sales, places where the author wasn’t getting paid.

That was bad enough, but NY had a second chance when e-books became a viable option.

They could have saved those titles at least in e-book form. 

E-Book Equals Gold or Fish?

Alas, instead of creating a Big Six controlled e-book decision staffed with eager college grads to format books and flood Amazon with gatekeeper-approved books, NY decided…

E-books were evil.

And that readers would always want paper and a ‘browsing experience’ in an oversized store with ridiculous overhead.

This initially caused publishers to hand backlists back to the authors. They believed that these books were worthless. Yep, they believed that e-books were a pipe dream and a fad. Here’s the big kicker, they di nothing to test that theory.

Aha! But when those hurt authors started converting their castaway backlists INTO E-BOOKS…and making lots of money?

Noticing that readers were desperate for GOOD e-books, these authors started making far more income than they ever had being traditionally published. This e-book gold rush ignited a mass exodus of multi-published and even mid-list authors…right into Amazon’s welcoming arms.

Now the Big Apple’s In Trouble

NY was all of a sudden in BIG trouble. Wow, the next generation of ‘household names’ had historically been cultivated, then promoted from the ranks of the mid-list.

After years of loyalty the mid-list authors got fed up with being treated so poorly…and they looked up and said #ByeFelicia.

What did this cause the publishers to do? Did they finally see the errors of their ways and make an e-book division strictly for backlists.

Of course not. 

Publishers did the unthinkable, they changed all the contracts to make it where authors no longer had rights to their backlist…ever. Those backlists would remain the property of the publisher to do with what they wished.

Including nothing.

A once devoted author pool suddenly turned bitter. A large portion of the traditional talent went ROGUE.

They just cut their losses then began self-publishing. Some of them created indie houses of their own. Guess what? Many of them were more efficient and geared toward the marketplace.

With Amazon’s blessing, the authors who once made money for NY suddenly became the competition.

Ironically, the Big Six financed Amazon’s rise as a publishing powerhouse.

In a twist of fate, NY helped self-publishing transition from ‘shunned wanna-be writers into a viable and respectable publishing alternative.

It wasn’t like the people in charge couldn’t see Amazon’s way of doing things had more red flags than an Ashley Madison dating profile.

The Big Six got knocked down as early as January 2010 when Amazon removed the BUY buttons (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/technology/30amazon.html) from all the Macmillan titles. The second red flag? When a ‘mysterious’ glitch temporarily removed the BUY buttons off ALL the Big Six titles (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/mystery-glitch-takes-down-big-6-publishers-kindle-buy-buttons/195349)–Penguin, Simon & Schuster, MacMillan, HarperCollins, and Hachette.

The third, but not the last, red flag? Amazon (allegedly) removed virtually all the discounts on Hachette titles, according to a 2014 article in Forbes (https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/technology/30amazon.html). There are many more, but you get the point. It was like a weird rash that wouldn’t go away…

After going through ALL of this did the major publishers innovate? Maybe listen to analysis and bloggers and update their business plan? Maybe remove its parasol and bustle?

Nope.

Did they pay attention to the digital tsunami that had already obliterated Kodak, Radio Shack, Blockbuster, Sam Goody and Tower Records?

No.

Did they even pay attention to WHY Borders went bankrupt? Try to make a better plan?

Once again, no.

Did they notice that Barnes & Noble has had FIVE C.E.O.s in the past FOUR YEARS, each one even more incompetent than the previous? 

Of course not.

Wasn’t anyone worried that Barnes & Noble was shuttering a whopping twenty-one stores a year as of 2017?

That the only way Barnes & Noble valuations could have dropped faster would’ve been to strap them to The Titanic?

If they’d cared about their writers–or listened to those agents or editors that worked for slave wages to maintain some sort of quality control–they could’ve been a contender. Could have changed. Instead?

They doubled down with Barnes & Noble, a comp[any that was so inept they couldn’t find themselves with Google maps.

We all know the weight of a private buyout is simply too much burden to bear.

Do you remember when this sort of debt load came on the once-robust brands such as Toys “R” Us, Wet Seal, The Limited, and, most recently, Payless Shoes. 

Even the former office supply giant, Staples, faces an uncertain future. The Sycamore Partners, who acquired the struggling company about two years ago, had planned on rebranding and splitting it into three companies.

Now, they’re just cashing out.

Now that a hedge fund has acquired Barnes & Noble (and its debt) this is rough times. They wouldn’t be the first giant beheaded under the Private Equity sword then parted out, the rest will be left to the scavengers.

The publishing industry as a whole, including Barnes & Noble, can breathe a tiny sigh of relief because of Elliot Advisors (C.E.O. James Daunt), possesses a solid reputation for rescuing completely incompetent book chains.

According to a recent (June 7th, 2019) article by Alexandra Alter and Tiffany Hsu in The New York Times. (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/07/books/barnes-noble-sale.html) 

“The acquisition follows Elliott’s purchase of the British bookstore chain Waterstones in June 2018. James Daunt, the chief executive of Waterstones, will also act as Barnes & Noble’s C.E.O. and will be based in New York.”

Using creativity, vision, and common sense, James Daunt–rescued Waterstones from bankruptcy and made the store profitable again.

He hopes to do the same for Barnes & Noble.

There is no Publishing Guarantee Shop. I know many writers who want to ‘only write books and not worry their pretty little heads over the icky business stuff. This is a recipe for disaster.

Becoming a mega-author will not fix your problems any more than winning the lottery will replace our retirement fund.

An authors brand and platform are not an option, they’re a LIFELINE.

The one and only way to Amazon-proof ourselves is to create a vested following who will buy our books no matter where we list them.

Then if Amazon (or Barnes & Noble, or Joe-Bob’s Book Haven or whoever else) ceases to be a good business partner?

We can…leave. Yay!