出版与作家生涯2019theatlantic.com
亚马逊征服出版业的计划
Amazon's Plan to Conquer the World of Publishing
导读
这篇《大西洋月刊》文章讨论亚马逊通过 Amazon Publishing、KDP 等渠道对出版业的控制，以及这种控制如何影响作者、读者和图书市场。对写作者来说，它值得读，因为发表不只是写得好，还要理解平台分成、独家条款、营销工具和读者触达如何决定作品能否被看见。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
动笔前先算平台账：定价区间、分成比例、独家要求和营销工具，会直接决定一本书能否回本，甚至影响你是否动笔。
- 02
把“先有读者”写进项目计划：没有初始受众和早期评论，新书在算法平台上很容易一上架就沉底。
- 03
选题要匹配真实购买场景：线上匿名购买让类型小说、实用手册等“不体面”的畅销书浮出水面，别只盯着传统榜单。
- 04
写行业报道或非虚构时警惕单一反派叙事：同一套出版流程可以被写成“服务作者”或“服务另一个主人”，要让证据和多视角说话。
HN 评论精选
亚马逊的分成、定价和独家规则压缩作者收入，技术类作者可借自出版和博客绕过平台。
据我所知，亚马逊基本在迫使你把自己多年写成的千页电子书定价在9.99美元或以下，而他们“只”抽走售价的35%（几年前是30%）。若你想卖到10美元以上，他们的佣金就变成70%。另外，电子书如果不给亚马逊独家，就拿不到KDP免费促销等重要营销工具，而这些对积累社会证明和获得最初评论很关键。没有既有受众又没这些工具，电子书一上架基本就死了。这如果不是可怕的垄断和对作者的公然勒索，那我不知道什么才是；9.99美元太低了，很多书值更多。他们还会给你的读者发邮件推荐竞品作者的书。我认为亚马逊对作者的扼制让很多书根本不会被写出来，因为作者知道自己靠写书无法谋生。对技术和教学类图书，自出版好得多：通过博客做自然营销，电子书可以卖49美元，拿全部售价并拿到客户邮箱。
vfc1查看英文原文
Last time I checked, Amazon was essentially forcing you to sell your 1000 page years of work e-book for $9.99 or less, taking "only" 35% of the price sale (used to be 30% a couple of years ago). If you want to sell it above $10, then their commission becomes 70%! Also, if your ebook is not exclusive to Amazon, then you don't get access to important marketing tools (KDP program) like free promotions, which are essential to build up social proof and get initial reviews. Without a prior audience and without those tools your ebook is dead on arrival. If this is not a horrific monopoly and flat ou author extortion, then I don't know what is. $9.99 is just too low, many books are worth more than that. Also, they will send emails to your readers suggesting ebooks from competing authors. I think the Amazon stranglehold on authors is preventing a lot of books from even being written, as the authors know that they won't be able to make a living ou of them. For technical and instructional books, self-publishing is a much better option, with organic marketing done via blogging. You can sell the ebook for say $49, get the whole price sale and the customer email.
线上匿名购买释放了类型小说和实用书的真实需求，写作者应正视渠道与读者行为对选题的影响。
我曾在一家对亚马逊图书做NLP/AI的创业公司工作（做“智能”邮件书讯推荐）。你会惊讶于亚马逊销售榜前列是些什么书。最大买家是中年女性，亚马逊自出版承接了庞大的言情小说产业；还出现过恐龙/穴居女爱情故事等奇幻混搭言情，每本都有大量真实评论，也有大量可疑的商业书和自助书。这些东西以前也流行，但人们用Kindle匿名网购时更不害羞、买得更多；实体书店只摆“体面”的书。所以安静的线上畅销书和《纽约时报》榜单看起来很不一样，这单是消费者行为造成的。
dmix查看英文原文
I worked at a startup that was doing NLP/AI stuff on Amazon books for a while (a "smart" email newsletter book recommendation service). You'd be surprised at some of the books that top those Amazon sales charts. The biggest consumers are middle-aged women and Amazon self-publishing is where the giant harlequin novel industry moved to. One of the more bizarre books that popped up included a Dinosaur/cave girl love story [1] and some other fantasy related themes mixed with romance. Each of those would have tons of real reviews. There was also tons of sketchy business books and self-help stuff. I'm sure this stuff was really popular before too, but people tend to be less shy and far higher quantity when buying 'anonymously' online with a Kindle. Bookstores would only carry 'respectable' titles'. So the quiet online bestsellers look very different than NYTimes list just from consumer behaviour alone. [1] NSFW https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dinosaur+romance
亚马逊的比价、折扣和分成机制让自出版作者失去定价控制权，平台规则本身就是写作与出版决策的一部分。
我与Amazon Publishing无关，只通过亚马逊已停用的CreateSpace及其后继KDP自出版，也在第三方自出版平台出书并尝试把书挂到亚马逊。多年经验让我认为亚马逊对自出版作者是有毒环境：其定价模型旨在压过其他自出版平台，甚至到了伤害它们的地步。如果作者在第三方平台出版，亚马逊会要求该书在亚马逊的标价是可行价格的两倍，以便从第一天起就能五折卖给读者。作者无法控制折扣何时生效、折扣多大、持续多久；而且作者拿的是实际售价的百分比，不是原标价。同时在亚马逊和第三方平台出版不被禁止，但亚马逊要求其平台标价不高于其他网站（最好更低）；若发现别处更便宜，会自动比价且不通知作者。
rikroots查看英文原文
I have no relationship with Amazon Publishing, nor am I ever likely to. My experience of publishing with Amazon is entirely restricted to their (now defunct) CreateSpace platform and its successor, Kindle Direct Publishing, alongside publishing works on 3rd party self-publishing platforms and attempting to get those books listed on Amazon. My personal view, developed over a number of years, is that Amazon is a toxic environment for self-publishing authors: - Their price modelling is designed to undercut other self-publishing platforms to the point of damaging them. If an author publishes on a 3rd party platform, Amazon will demand that the price point for the book is double the viable price listing on Amazon - so that they can offer the book to readers at a 50% discount (from day 1 of listing). Authors have no control over when the discount is applied, or the level of discount, or for how long it will last. The last time I checked (several years ago, things may have changed since) authors were paid a percentage of the price at which the book was sold, not its original price point. - Publishing both on Amazon and on a 3rd party platform is not prohibited; however Amazon demand that the list pricing on their platform must be as cheap (or preferably cheaper) than on those other sites (before any discounts are applied). If they find a book listed elsewhere at a cheaper price they will automatically price-match without warning the author. Running a temporary price reduction promotion for a book on another platform can lead to a permanent price reduction for the book on Amazon. - If an author wants to give away a book for free, this is possible on other platforms, but not on Amazon - unless the author enrolls the book in their KDP Select program, which will allow the author to offer strictly time-limited free giveaway windows ... - Except an author can only enroll a book on KDP Select if they remove that book from all other platforms and agree to publish exclusively on Amazon. This includes removing the book from profitable venues such as Google Play and Apple Books (which are ideal for iPad/iPhone and Android devices). - I could go on (but won't). Many people will disagree with my personal 'toxic environment' view. That's fine. Self-publishing on the Amazon platforms is often enough to meet the needs of many self-published authors, and quite often profitable for them too. But for me the above points all indicate that Amazon is interested only in killing diversity and creating a readership monopoly, which in the longer run will damage self-publishing and prove to be toxic to both authors and readers alike.
内部员工反驳文章对Amazon Publishing的负面叙事，强调作者曾被当作客户；提醒读行业报道要辨析立场。
我平时不在HN发帖，但这篇文章让我注册回应。文章说出版社服务的是Amazon Prime而不是作者，这种写法有意把亚马逊和APub描绘成邪恶。我在APub工作近4年，团队基本没有值班负担，能从头到尾了解出版流程（从选题到电子书或纸质书），我也在那里成为很强的工程师。首先，作者是我们的客户；我们为作者做一切，想提供VIP体验。亚马逊当然想增加Prime订阅；但说我或团队“服务另一个主人”是虚伪的胡说。
thr0waway98121查看英文原文
I don't ever post on HN, but this article convinced me to create an account and respond. >But experts who spoke with me said that the publishing house serves not authors but another master—Amazon Prime. This is intentionally written in a way that describes Amazon and APub as being nefarious. I worked in APub for almost 4 years before moving to a different FANG. It was a fantastic place to work. I'm sure engineers in other parts of Amazon get paged all the time. There was essentially no on-call burden for my team. We got to launch some really cool programs and learn about the publishing workflows end to end (ideation all the way to an ebook or physical title). This company was where I became a really strong engineer (my previous job was at a non-tech company building small scale CRUD apps). First and foremost, authors were our customers. We did anything and everything for authors - it was meant to be a VIP experience. Does Amazon want to increase Prime subscriptions? Absolutely. But portraying that I or my team "served another master" is disingenuous horse shit.
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