Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Message Board

To: Stock Puppy who wrote (160612)	2/1/2010 1:18:03 PM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (2) of 161295

Self-publishing is a very different model from the normal publishing route. These authors are new or perceived as not having an established market for their works. Such authors are generally eager to establish their reputations, so eager that they have traditionally been willing to front the expenses for "vanity presses". Kindle books priced between 0 and $1 now provide a reasonable platform for much broader distribution of such works while imposing no costs upon the author. Ultimately Amazon has made an unparalleled investment in warehouses and logistics for delivery of physical goods. Google has made a similar investment in servers and logistics for the speedy delivery of relevant digital information. Apple's forte has traditionally been in developing and selling devices for downloading and displaying digital information. But, like Amazon, it has been migrating more and more into the content business. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. Anybody who pretends to know is a fool. Sam