As usual Mike Shatzkin presents the most incisive thinking about what’s happening in this industry. As an independent publisher, I don’t have the luxury of bemoaning or the challenge of trying shape the way the industry is moving. My job is to carve out on ongoing niche in a continually changing industry dynamic. Interestingly, over the last three years, the niches for independent presses like ours are growing, and our business is growing rapidly in size and profitability.
Mike’s posts always force me to consider whether we are experiencing the success of the turkey before thanksgiving, with Amazon as the executioner. We’ll see, but there are good reasons whey I don’t think so (some of which I’ll discuss in future posts). I do know that I don’t envy the executives running the big 6. The challenges they face are intimidating.