“Amazon.com today announced a new publishing imprint, AmazonCrossing, which will introduce readers to voices of the world through English-language translations of foreign-language books. The first title being published by AmazonCrossing is Tierno Monénembo’s award-winning novel, ‘The King of Kahel,’ which will be released for the first time in English for readers around the world on Nov. 2, 2010. English-language editions of ‘The King of Kahel’ will be available in print format at www.amazon.com and globally as a wireless digital download from the Kindle Store in less than 60 seconds.
AmazonCrossing uses customer feedback and other data from Amazon sites around the world to identify exceptional books deserving of a wider, global audience. AmazonCrossing will acquire the rights and translate the books and then introduce them to the English-speaking market through multiple channels and formats, such as the Amazon Books Store, Amazon Kindle Store, and national and independent booksellers via third-party wholesalers.
“As president of the Nobel Committee for Literature, I have seen how recent laureates–Elfriede Jelinek, Imre Kertesz, JMG Le Clézio, Herta Müller–were virtually unknown and unprinted in England and U.S. and only after the Nobel Prize were they able to find readers in English, yet they are in my view equal to anyone writing in English,” said Per Wästberg, President of the Nobel Committee for Literature. “AmazonCrossing deserves praise and support. Such translation and distribution of good literature from so-called minor languages can only stimulate our cultures and inspire writers to widen their horizons.”
“There are many thousands of books out there worthy of being translated and published in English, but that are currently unavailable to us monolingual readers,” said Chad Post, Publisher at Open Letter Books. “The more international books that are available in English, the better. It’s exciting to see a company like Amazon investing in such a worthy cause like AmazonCrossing, and in a way that will definitely help expand the audience for literature in translation.
Tierno Monénembo’s ‘The King of Kahel’ was originally published in France in 2008 and was the winner of the French literary prize, the prix Renaudot, which is awarded to the author of an outstanding original novel published during the current year. Based on the life of Olivier de Sanderval, a man who journeyed to Guinea to build an empire by conquering the hostile region of Fouta Djallon, the book explores how Sanderval braves all dangers to build a railway that will bring modern civilization to Africa. Born in 1947 in Guinea, Monénembo was exiled to Senegal and the Ivory Coast before moving to France to pursue a doctorate in biochemistry. He is the author of nine books and one stage play.”
I suspect I’m not the only one to find these moves disturbing or their long range implications ominous.
Yes, supermarket chains do have their house brands, but no chain has the sort of market domination that Amazon has in book distribution.
In addition, store shelves allow little of the selective visibility that Amazon can and does use to make certain titles more often seen than others. Several years ago, Amazon’s own legal counsel confirmed to me that they do precisely that.
I can give you an revealing example that’s active right now. Go to Amazon’s advanced search page and enter this under Title:
Across Asia on a Bicycle
It’s a 1894 book about the first Americans to bike around the world. The first listing in the search results is a lucrative $23.99 edition lacking even an ISBN and with the “From the Publisher” remarks that I wrote for my more expanded edition of the same title. Even more bizarrely, they include my picture further down the page, as if I had something to do with this edition.
Looking further down the “relevance” listing, you’ll find a pricey, $166.25, 1894 edition, two different Kindle editions, a bizarrely overpriced $45.33 “used” copy of my $12.95 (list) paperback, followed by several “currently unavailable” editions. (Why list what is unavailable?) Most important of all notice that nowhere on the first or second page is my inexpensive edition. Is that because Amazon doesn’t sell it? No, not quite.
Return the to Advanced Search page and search under this ISBN:
1587420201
Now you’ll find my edition. It’s easily the least expensive print edition on the market. That’s why it has to be hid. Amazon doesn’t make much money when it sells, nothing like they make when they sell a copy of that strange $23.99 edition. And with its footnotes and added content, I think mine is also the best edition in print. Amazon is selling its customers an inferior edition at a grossly inflated the price.
Why this deception? Check out that first search again. The publisher listed, “The British Library,” is a cover name for a deal Amazon made with the British Library. That edition doesn’t need an ISBN because it is a facsimile printed and thus published by Amazon’s own CreateSpace POD service. They make lots of money when it sells. They don’t make much when my cheaper and better edition sells.
There’s no need to speculate about what Amazon might do if they become a major publisher as well as by far the largest online publisher. We can see what Amazon will do by what it is doing with titles they already publish. In my illustration, they grossly overprice a book ($23.99 versus $11.01), and they make the latter almost invisible to their customers. If that’s not screwing your customers, what is? If that’s not abuse of a near monopoly power, what would be?
I say “almost invisible” because you can get to my edition from the small-type “Formats” listing on the page of Amazon’s own, high-priced edition. There is a link, it’s just not easy to spot.
Nor is this a slip up. That convoluted but still there way to get to a less expensive title was precisely the excuse Amazon’s lawyer used with me to justify their deception. She explained that their search algorithms are designed to display most prominently books that made Amazon the most money and to conceal less expensive and thus less lucrative editions. They don’t make it impossible to reach those other titles. They simply make it less obvious and more difficult.