Yesterday, Richard Curtis broke the news that Amazon have hired Larry Kirshbaum, ex-CEO of Time Warner Publishing, and now (soon to be ex-, I assume) literary agent and manager, to run their New York general interest publishing operation.
Kirshbaum has tried digital publishing before: he started iPublish in 2000*. It was a smart move. Shutting it down again when it didn’t get instant traction was not so smart (though I’m guessing he had corporate bean counters yelling at him).
I’m trying to work out who this move is aimed at. Amazon always, always has a game plan. And it’s always, always based on the numbers. They’re smart, they’re ruthless, they have the customer data. My guess (yep, I’m just making stuff up–why not?) is that this is either a) part of a long-term tighten the headlock on publishers strategy: put the fear of Sauron in ’em for future negotiation purposes, or, b) a serious attempt to go vertical, to own the entire publishing ecology and cut out the Big Six with their anti-digital agency pricing.
Right now, honestly, there’s no way to tell. No doubt all our favourite book pundits will weigh in this week. I’ll do my best to keep up.
But right now I’m thinking: Oooh, this is interesting. I have a novel that I’m finishing (about Hild of Whitby). I have a contract for it, kind of, sort of (it’s complicated). It’s a good contract. It’s a fine publisher. It’s an editor I like and respect. But the publisher might not be able to sell this book to their usual customers. It doesn’t have an easy and obvious hook. It’s a huge novel, set in the 7th Century, about a woman most people have never heard of. Actually, it’s part one of a novel about the girl who becomes the woman most people have never heard of. There’s no magic. No monsters (except the human kind). No gender-bending (she doesn’t pick up a sword and fight her way into a fabulous new life). It’s one of those novels that have gone out of style: a huge, good old-fashioned literary read. Think Kristin Lavransdatter, but better. Think Wolf Hall, but with a more reader-friendly point-of-view. (It has to be: the culture is more alien, and it’s about a young girl in a very difficult position.)
Anyway, if it turns out my publisher isn’t convinced they can do a good job for Hild, then I’m guessing no traditional publisher could, and Amazon might be where I’d turn next.
So, yes, this move has my attention.
*Edited to reflect Tim Pratt’s comment–thanks, Tim.
Nicola Griffith 
It is very interesting. iPublish actually folded in late 2001, after a bit over a year in existence.
Yep — you are so right. And your a) and b) go well together: c) both of the above. : )
Tim, oops, I was out by quite a few years there.
Ed, I think so–but, hey, Amazon is a chess players. I never see their game the way they see it. They're always about nine moves ahead.
Yeah, I figured it was some of all of the above.
There are some smart folks over at Amazon, crafty like foxes. So far, from a writers POV, I generally like what they've done for our industry. We'll see how this all goes…
ssas, oh, yep. One day, if I'm bored (right, like that happens so very often…), I'll make a little graph and plot the accuracy of my predictions over the years. I'm guessing I'm considerably less accurate than chance :)
Larry the K hired me in 1977 and I sold his books in the 1980's. I will be interested to see to what he is up.
At BEA this week my co-editor pitched a book idea to Amazon and they are interested–a collection.
“Strange things are happening every day…” Or so sings Abigail Washburn, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and other folks.
chadao, let me know how that goes!