Jeff Bezos founded online retail giant Amazon in 1994. The original Amazon website launched shortly afterwards in 1995. Today Amazon is a very successful business and is probably one of the most trusted and recognisable brands in the world. It’s easy to overlook just what a radical concept ordering books on the internet and then receiving them by mail was at the time. There was no shortage of business analysts and investors who forecast that Amazon would struggle – and it wasn’t until the end of 2001 that Amazon reported their first ever profits.
After modifying the way that many people bought books, Amazon quickly diversified into other areas. Video, music CDs, toys, consumer electronics and computer software are just some examples of the types of items which Amazon added to their list of product offerings. At the moment you can find virtually any consumer product that you can imagine on Amazon’s website – even your groceries if you like.
In addition to growing their product range, Amazon set up further websites in the UK, France, Germany, China and Canada. Nevertheless, they maintained their original passion for books and they still had, in the eyes of the public, a very strong link with book sales.
This powerful association with books served them well in November 2007 when the original Kindle e-book reader was released. After having changed the manner in which books were bought and delivered, Amazon was now changing the way that books were read – for many people. The Kindle enjoyed a lot of publicity and the e-book market really took off in February 2009 when Amazon launched the upgraded Kindle 2.0
In June of the same year, Amazon followed up with the large format Kindle DX. This sported a larger e-ink display screen and was aimed at readers of magazines, newspapers and academic textbooks. Much of the buzz surrounding the DX was generated by the normally conservative world of academic publishing.
So, the way in which books are purchased, delivered and even read have all been fundamentally changed in a fairly short period of time. The final piece of the jigsaw – publishing – is also likely to evolve in the near future. Large publishing houses will certainly want to produce an e-book version of any new publications in future. The traditional process of hardback release followed by the paperback edition a few months later will be modified by the inclusion of an e-book edition right at the front end of the cycle.
Considering the fact that publishing e-books costs very much less than a conventional print run, it could be that publishers are more inclined to publish lesser known authors in the future. Perhaps more authors may decide to take more control by self publishing in future. At the moment, anyone who has an Amazon account and can operate Microsoft Word, for example, can publish a Kindle book for free (and receive a 70% share of the sales price). Amazon, this time using e-book readers as a vehicle, continues to make big changes in the world of books.
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