There’s a fascinating article in Business Week on Amazon’s venture into publishing. And the stark terror that’s gripping publishers as an result.

Sadly, it’s hard to argue that the blame for that lies anywhere than at the feet of the publishers themselves. As the article, Amazon’s Hit Man – BusinessWeek, says:

“Book publishing, an inefficient industry if there ever was one, seems ripe for reimagining. According to a recent report by the Association of American Publishers, sales of adult paperbacks and hardcovers fell 18 percent between 2010 and 2011. “

Publishers have leeched off writers for years.

Way back in 2000 I was an occasional reader of a writers’ forum. The forum was focused on book marketing.

Of course, publishers refused to create marketing campaigns for any writers unless the writer was a bestseller, and the house had committed millions in a book advance. They were protecting the money they’d invested.

I was shocked to my core when writer after writer said that they’d organized their own publicity for a book launch, spending not only their entire advance against royalties, but also their own savings (which some could ill afford.)

At first I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Why on earth were these writers bothering?

Since so many writers told the same tale, I assumed that writers were being told to do this by publishers — spend their advance on their own promotions. I thought that was unconscionable then, and I think the same now.

If ever an industry needed a good swift kick in the rear, it’s publishing. There are many wonderful people in publishing. The industry however, in its present state, deserves to die.

Back in the 1990s I interviewed the CEO of a major publishing house for an article. He was congratulating himself on a couple of takeovers. I thought then that publishing was in a death spiral — the entire industry was all about dollars, only. Not that I have anything against people making money. However, sooner or later, the money has to come from something REAL — not about smarties finding clever ways to make a buck. (See Wall St. for the smarties who will kill capitalism if they can.)

It’s time for people who read and and who love books to take over publishing. Whatever form the industry takes in the future, these people will create it.

Kindle Publishing Is Hot: Want to generate cash from your kitchen table and quit your day job?

Others are making money from Kindle publishing. The lucky few are making millions. Some are making great money — and that money increases each month.

What about you?

Imagine generating cash from your kitchen table. You can let Amazon do all the heavy lifting. Amazon’s got a proven publishing system, after all — discover Fast and Easy Kindle Publisher: Turn Free Stuff Into Kindle Cash, and discover four different ways to turn free stuff into Kindle cash.

Are you considering enrolling your new ebook in the KDP Select program? You’ll be given the opportunity to do so when you upload your ebook.

Amazon has just released a new press release which indicates that authors are having some success with the program.

In this press release, Amazon Media Room: Press Releases, Amazon reports:

“Amber Scott is a romance writer and earned $7,650 from the KDP Select fund in December. “Enrolling in KDP Select utterly transformed my career,” said Scott. “I’ve experienced not only a surge in royalties but a surge in readership thanks to the increased exposure. I love the chance to earn new readers through the innovation of the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library. What an exciting time to be an author!””

Tired of struggling? Here’s some inspiration for you… An ebook called “Fat Loss 4 Idiots” made 21 million dollars in 2009. Last year, Amanda Hocking wrote several short ebooks, and made 2 million dollars. Publishing has changed. You’re in charge, if you want to be.

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Are you writing a book? If so, there’s a marketplace you may not have considered: Amazon’s Kindle.

I’ve owned a Kindle for a while, and although I loved it at first, the dinky little forward and back buttons just annoy me. I’m a fast reader, and the buttons hurt my thumbs. Then I bought an iPad, and now I read my Kindle ebooks on that: forward and back with just a tap! Magic.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying that the future of books is digital, and you can read Kindle books on just about any mobile device, which makes for a HUGE marketplace.

To be honest, although I publish ebooks, I disregarded the Kindle. Then I kept hearing from writer colleagues that they’d just published their books on the Kindle, and that sales were great. One writer told me she was publishing a book a week.

That raised my eyebrows.

What raised them even more was when she told me of the income she was making, without doing much promotion at all; she was relying on Amazon’s popularity.

This means that I’ll be taking a fresh look at the Kindle’s publishing format, and you should too.

Publishing for the Kindle is amazingly easy.

To show you how easy, I discovered this new video training, which shows you how to publish in Kindle format quickly and simply, and completely for free, using the tools you already have on your computer.

Discover how you can publish your books in Kindle format today.

Can the Apple tablet revive the publishing industry? That remains to be seen. Apparently Apple’s been shopping the tablet around to publishers, offering a better deal to publishers than Amazon.

Publishers talk about Apple’s tablet | 9 to 5 Mac reports:

“Apple has been pitching itself against Amazon’s model specifically to the publishers.  Apple’s ‘Agency model’ gives publishers more control and freedom for pricing vs. Amazon who’ve recently restructured a small part of their publisher offering to compete with this surge by Apple.   We received the exact same wording from both people so we think this is the type of thing that Apple is touting to all publishers.  We might hear about ‘the Agency Model’ vs. Kindle’s at the event.”

Fascinating.

Some analysts are predicting that Apple’s rumored device will sell ten million units in the first year. If so, and if the device is content-centric, then your book may indeed appear on the Apple tablet.

We live in exciting times…

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Amazon’s new POD policy has set the cat amongst the pigeons.

IT’S NOT OVER! Amazon Tells Publishers, Pay Us To Print Your Books…Or Else reports:

“Tuesday, April 1st, was the rumored deadline Amazon.com gave to some POD publishers to sign an agreement allowing their printing division, BookSurge, to print each publisher’s book to be sold through Amazon, or risk having their ‘buy’ buttons turned off on the Amazon.com website. Publishers, authors, and even book buyers were outraged by this apparent power-grab by Amazon. Attorneys and government officials are still studying the legality of their actions. How could they demand such a thing and what publisher in their right mind would agree to their ridiculous terms? While a band of POD publishers stayed together, refusing to sway to Amazon’s demands, some did not.”

I’m not up to date with POD, but I applaud Angela Hoy’s BookLocker policy:

“You can’t promise your authors something that involves another company if you don’t have a contract with that other company. Our BookLocker contract states, “Sales channels can be added or removed at the Company’s discretion and without prior notice. While the Company provides listings to Ingram for print books, online bookstores, such as Amazon.com, are not required to list these titles for sale. Listings offered by online bookstores are at the discretion of each particular store.”

If you let another company control your business, essentially you don’t have a business.