キャミー・タング著「戌年」連載小説 プロのドッグトレーナーであるマリ・ムトウは、厄年を迎えている。 犬小屋と訓練所の改築をしながら、いつも不服そうにしている家族と同居することになった。母と姉に言わせれば、犬の毛とよだれかけにまみれる仕事は、家族にとって恥ずべきものだという。彼女は元カレを説得し、数ヶ月間犬を預かってもらうことにした。しかし、彼の兄は、数週間前に彼女が誤って車に追突した、怒り狂ったセキュリティ専門家であることが判明する。 アシュウィン・ケイトウは十分な問題を抱えている。叔母が玄関先に現れ、同居を希望している。彼は彼女にすべてを借りているので、断ることができません。母親が家を出て行った後、ネルおばさんはアシュウィンと弟を引き取り、愛のあるキリスト教の家庭で育てた。しかも、弟のダスティもアパートを追い出され、居場所を求めている。しかし、彼は犬を飼っている。そして、その犬の飼い主は誰だと思いますか？ しかし、旧友でオアフ島のノースショアでデイスパを経営する私立探偵のエディサ・ゲレロから依頼を受ける。マリの施設で奇妙な破壊行為があり、3年前に失踪したエディサの妹の財布を発見する。エディサはマリが危険な目に遭っているのではと心配する。警備の専門家であるアシュウィンがすでにマリを知っていることを知ったエディサは、忙しい若い女性を密かに監視することを彼に依頼する。 アシュウィンは、活発でのんびりとしたドッグトレーナーに不本意ながら惹かれていく。彼女は、幸せそうな母親を思い出させる。その母親の裏切りによって、彼は人と距離を置くようになったのだ。マリは、アシュウィンの冷たい外見を見抜き、彼が家族に忠実な男であることを認める。彼は、彼女のキャリア選択を批判するだけの母親や姉とは違う。 マリのバラバラな家庭とアシュウィンのバラバラな家庭の中で、過去を隠そうとする人たちから、彼らの周りに危険が迫ってくるようになる。彼らは、影で動く秘密に光を当てることができるのか？ 過去に発表されたパートへのリンクはこちら。 *** 第8章 - 恐ろしくも真っ白な不動産書類 『みんな仲良くできないのかな？』 マリは無用に力を込めて箱に本を投げ入れた。最近、なぜ彼女は人生の中で全員と言い争いをしているのだろう？もしかすると、これは本当に悪いアイデア
Here’s a link to an article about Amazon.com that I got from Mary Keeley of Books and Such Literary Agency. Why is Amazon doing this to publishers? This is so unfair. Amazon is trying to make these publishers agree to terms that would make the publishers lose money, in order for Amazon to make money off of other products in their arsenal. If the publishers don’t agree, Amazon can just stop ordering from them and the publishers lose money anyway. What kind of a business practice is that? Amazon doesn’t NEED to sell all their titles so cheaply. They’re already making money off of bestsellers. Amazon is acting like a bully. Maybe this is petty of me, but I'm going to stop buying books from Amazon for a little while. >:(
Comments
I was under the impression that self-published KDP authors earn a 70% royalty of Amazon e-books, which probably explains why they are prepared to sign up to a monopoly situation. I was under the impression that most traditionally-published authors got royalties in the 15% - 20% region, even for e-books, so the KDP obviously has advantages.
On the one hand Amazon clearly has the corporate manners of a troll, for which there simply is no excuse. It seemed to me that something like half the complaints were not so much for what Amazon did but for how they did it: threateningly, impersonally, suddenly, and uncompromisingly. Business is business, but it is simply BAD business to anger people unnecessarily like this; doing so generates hard feelings and, eventually, competitors. How smart is it in the long term to make these sudden, selfish, bullying moves in the public eye when, according to the article, Amazon has been forced to back down in about half the cases. It's a spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down, Mr. Bezos, not a knee to the groin.
On the other hand there is clearly a lot of self-serving sob story going on here as well. It is worth remembering that Amazon's EVIL plan, stripped of its bad behavior, is simply to win you and me as customers by selling us the products we want at a lower price than anyone else can while still making money hand over fist.
The horror, the horror....
Same thing with authors. Amazon isn't really trying to cheat them (What good would that do Amazon?), rather it is trying to entice them with ideas on how they can make MORE money per book sale, together, by eliminating the middleman. Of course this path isn't for everyone, but truth is, a good deal less than a majority of would-be authors ever get the choice of traditional publishing or self-publishing. For most would-be authors it is going to end up being self-publish (with all the limitations and difficulties therein)...
or don't publish... at all.
Finally, it is worth remembering that traditional publishers and independent booksellers got into this mess in the first place because of bad corporate behavior of their own. A commentator whose name is lost to history said it better than I can,
"Amazon has a lot of faults, but at least they don't sneer at my choice of reading material."
Too many independent booksellers did and still do so, which is why so many of their customers abandoned them, first for the big box stores, and later for Amazon.
As for traditional publishers, every single successful niche or genre publisher and every single successful self-published author is a testament to something they didn't see coming, lost a lot of money because of, and ended up stuck being Johnny come lately's watching somebody else make the money they passed on.