That feeling of déjà vu, right? It turns out that all the reported letter-writing by the Authors United group led by Douglas Preston—and the letter-of-support-writing from the Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, and the Association of Authors’ Representatives—was a long drumroll to actually presenting a case to Washington. Only now has that happened. (Greg Bensinger and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg have it at The Wall Street Journal.)
Predictably, this effort by the Authors United group of largely traditionally publishing authors is divisive. Self-publishing people recognize Amazon as the great enabler, its Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) platform being the single biggest vehicle for indie-author publishing to date.
But what of the Authors United case? Fortune Magazine’s Mathew Ingram writes “Here’s why the antitrust claim against Amazon by authors groups is doomed.” The fundamental nature of antitrust law, of course, normally stands on a concept of damage to consumers, often in the form of artificially created higher pricing. Amazon’s reputation is for lower pricing.
And “one of the crucial questions for the case,” Ingram writes, “is whether Amazon actually has a monopoly in any real sense of the word, and whether—if it does have one—it is misusing that monopoly in anti-competitive ways.” A monopoly, he reminds us, is not illegal. “What’s illegal,” he writes, “is using that monopoly to stifle competition. And not just to stifle competition but to do so in a way that makes things worse for consumers. This is where the Guild’s and Authors United argument falls apart.”
We’re a long way from finding out whether Justice might see a viable case here, let alone what such a case’s outcome might be. What we can tell now is that it means yet another rift, or a deepening of the one that just never seems to heal, between the traditionally publishing and self-publishing sectors. The gleeful ridicule with which indie authors speak of Authors United is met by stony silence from traditionally published authors. Communication isn’t happening, rhetoric is.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
