I'm catching hints of Microsoft in Amazon's behavior. Trying to do too much is a recipe for failure. Take for instance Microsoft's mission statement as stated by Bill Gates in the 1980s:
"A computer on every desk and in every home running Microsoft software."
Remarks like that were being praised in management circles at late as 2006:
http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/2432/power-of-a-clear,-concise-vision
But you and I know precisely what's wrong with it. Those two phrases "every desk" and "every office" don't encompass a world of mobile or portable devices. That's a core reason why Microsoft missed out on smartphones and tablets. It's also why they were caught flat-footed by the Internet. Those computers existed primarily to run "Microsoft software."
But notice that Gate's remark is wrong in another way—those two "every" claims. Microsoft wanted to own office and personal computers. It was so focused on driving what happened that it failed to see what was happening outside itself.
Amazon is making similar blunders, particularly in the book arena. What it can't own outright, it seeks to dominate. Sometimes that means it is legitimately charged with bullying. Sometimes it means its late to a party and upset to discover that everyone else is going down a different path. A healthier company would cooperate with those other paths not compete with or try to buy them out.
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Like Microsoft before it. Amazon is also making enemies among those with who it must have cooperative relationships, particularly authors and publishers. Other corporations know better, including Boeing, which also has a heavy Seattle presence.
When I worked for Boeing as a tech writer, I was told something interesting. Boeing, I was informed, could easily run its own passenger and package firm, using its own aircraft to shuttle people and things between its major facilities. It'd save time and money. An Boeing executive at the company's Everett facility (where 747 are assembled) could show up at 8:15 am and leave on an 8:30 flight to the company's plant in Wichita, arriving at the facility itself. He could attend a meeting and return that afternoon. And all that convenience would cost the company less than flying commercial.
Why doesn't it do that? My informant explained why. The airlines and package companies were its customers. Boeing had the good sense to know that, if it wanted to sell planes to American and UPS, it needed to do a healthy business with them. I couldn't compete.
Amazon seems totally unaware of that dynamic. It thinks it can be a print and digital publisher and still have amiable relationships with publishers. Not very realistic.
A publisher doesn't mind sharing book profits with book retailers. It knows that a healthy book market needs both publishers and retailers to do well. If bookstores are hurting, publishers will soon be hurting. What a publisher doesn't like is sharing its profits with a retailer who is also trying to dominate publishing. Amazon executives may think it's making clever moves to gain leverage over publishers. Others will think it's being foolish and making enemies unnecessarily.
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I do have one question about Wattpad though. I placed a draft of my latest book, Senior Nurse Mentor there:
http://www.wattpad.com/story/34716705
I was impressed by how marvelously is made my raw text look quite good. But while getting 95 reads, was probably respectable, I'm disappointed that none have commented even though I think I know why. My book is serious non-fiction. Nursing morale in many hospitals dreadful. It offers a practical solution.
But Wattpad seems to be almost exclusively for fiction. Three of the four "similar stories" it found to mine are about Harry Potter, of all things. The only sense I can make of that is that their recommendation software must think that the "mentor" is my title is like the wizards of Harry Potter. Weird!
What's the answer? Wattpad is about fiction. Amazon is flailing about with Writeon. Does anyone have a website that focuses on non-fiction, perhaps broken down by area?
That would make sense. Wrong is worse in many ways than boring. Because it's fact-based, non-fiction needs more prepublication reviews than fiction. But doesn't seem to be an Internet-wide way to do that.
–Michael W. Perry, Inkling Books
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