Amazon as publisher: What does it mean?

Ever since its inception, Amazon has brought seismic changes to the book world. Its e-commerce, mega book mall knocked traditional bricks-and-mortar booksellers off their feet. Its Kindle e-reader revolutionized the way Americans read – and buy – their books, with Amazon recently announcing it sells more e-books than print. And now, Amazon has signaled it will move into book publishing, leaving the major publishing houses holding their breath as they prepare to compete directly with the online behemoth.

Amazon recently announced that Laurence J. Kirshbaum, a literary agent and former publisher, will return to publishing to lead a new imprint for Amazon.

In an e-mail to agents sent last week, Jeff Belle, an Amazon executive, said Mr. Kirshbaum will be building the new publishing team.

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“Larry will be building out a publishing team in New York and will found new imprints under the Amazon Publishing umbrella, with a focus on acquiring the highest quality books in literary and commercial fiction, business and general nonfiction,” Mr. Belle said in the e-mail, according to The New York Times.

According to Bookseller.com, the move was no surprise to anyone in the book world.

“Everybody knew that an Amazon push into frontlist publishing was coming…. Highly-placed executives from New York houses have been migrating to Amazon for a while, and the company ratcheted up expectations after circulating a recruiting letter for various personnel a few weeks back.”

What does Amazon’s foray into publishing mean for the book industry?

Publishers, for one, aren’t happy about the move. Already squeezed, publishers are now worried the literary leviathan will use its influence and resources to dominate the publishing marketplace and could put a damper on competition.

Mike Shatzkin, CEO of Idea Logical Company, a consulting firm, put it this way.

“What essentially happened is you had six players sitting at the table playing poker, then a seventh player who has more money than the others combined, sat down at the table, and the price of playing poker just went up,” Mr. Shatzkin told the New York Observer. “I think it means that the agents are all celebrating and the big publishers are all crying in their beer.”

Agent and proprietor of E-Reads Richard Curtis had this to say:

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