I had never heard of monopsony until this morning when I read Paul Krugman's column in The New York Times. It's the undue power of a monster buyer, as opposed to monopoly which is that of a monster seller. In both cases, the organization wielding this power can influence price and supply--and in the case of Amazon's monoposony, what we read and even think.
Krugman gives a short summary of Amazon's fight with the French-based publisher Hachette over pricing, and then talks about what this means to readers and writers. Then he writes: "Book sales depend crucially on
buzz and word of mouth (which is why authors are often sent on grueling
book tours); you buy a book because you’ve heard about it, because other
people are reading it, because it’s a topic of conversation, because
it’s made the best-seller list. And what Amazon possesses is the power
to kill the buzz. It’s definitely possible, with some extra effort, to
buy a book you’ve heard about even if Amazon doesn’t carry it — but if
Amazon doesn’t carry that book, you’re much less likely to hear about it
in the first place."
He gives as an example two books by recently mentioned prominently in the NYT: "One is Daniel Schulman’s “Sons of Wichita,” a profile of the Koch brothers; the other is “The Way Forward,”
by Paul Ryan, who was Mitt Romney’s running mate and is chairman of the
House Budget Committee. Both are listed as eligible for Amazon Prime,
and for Mr. Ryan’s book Amazon offers the usual free two-day delivery.
What about “Sons of Wichita”? As of Sunday, it “usually ships in 2 to 3
weeks.” Uh-huh."
I'm not sure just what Amazon might be promoting here--are they promoting one kind of right-wing thought over anyother?--but any writer who's had a book effectively unavailable through Amazon knows just how hard it is to fight that kind of non-promotion. And that's saying nothing about the fact that Amazon sets prices lower than other retailers which mean less revenue for writers whose royalties are based on retail prices.
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