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When you consider of the word “monopoly” what comes to mind? Likely enough, you’re thinking about tiny plastic hotels, being the first to purchase Boardwalk, and collecting $200 each time you pass “GO.” If you paid attention in U.S. history, perhaps old-time oil companies come to mind too.

Either way, chances are you’re not thinking about Amazon.com. But the publishing industry is.

Authors United and the American Book Association (ABA) aligned forces last week by writing letters to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) calling for an investigation into Amazon’s business practices—specifically, its potential “abuse of its dominance in the world of books.”

In their letter, the ABA cited some concerning statistics regarding Amazon’s share of current book markets:

• 75 percent of online sales of physical books
• 65 percent of ebook sales
• 40 percent of new book sales
• 85 percent of ebooks from self-published titles

These facts and figures are no secret to modern booksellers, publishing houses, and literary agents. If publishers don’t sell to Amazon, they miss a giant opportunity for author exposure, making a partnership with Amazon a near necessity. Oftentimes, these sales must come at a deep discount, or the publishers will still be overlooked. Random House gives Amazon a reported 53 percent discount on its books, for example. And that’s one of the problems Authors United and the ABA hope to highlight.

Although Amazon has been considered a monopoly as a seller of books, its power as a monopsony—a large buyer that controls a significant portion of the market and drives prices down—could be the root of the problem.

Unlike the infamous monopolies of the 19^th century, Amazon has not been using its power to over-charge customers. It’s doing just the opposite. Amazon’s loss leader pricing tactics have been giving buyers extreme discounts and digging into the publishing industry’s profits.

But isn’t Amazon just doing business? Some companies succeed, and some companies fail—the ones with the best business plans deserve to crush their competition—right?

Maybe not. The issue extends beyond the troubling decrease in independent bookstores—which now account for less than 10 percent of book sales. Authors United and the ABA claim Amazon’s practices have the potential to erase much of the diversity from the publishing industry—a resounding loss not only for struggling publishers, but authors and readers as well.

In its letter, Authors United claims Amazon’s aggressively low pricing actually hurts readers, because decreased revenue for publishers means fewer funds to invest in new prospects. Summarizing similar concerns, the ABA stated:

“A central tenet of ABA’s mission is to ensure that a broad array of books is as widely available to the American consumers as possible. The greater the number of books, the greater the number of voices and ideas; the greater the number of voices and ideas, the richer are the lives of our citizens and the stronger our society.”

Yet, the ABA may struggle to prove that Amazon is preventing author opportunities, or stopping books from into the hands of readers. Although Authors United notes it has seen “fewer titles published by the major publishing houses each year” the number of new titles published annually has actually grown twelvefold since 2002, soaring to a whopping three million in 2010. Revenue has also increased steadily, due in part to ever-growing ebook sales from small presses and self-publishers, effectively discrediting Authors United’s claim that there isn’t enough money to go around to support midlist authors.

In fact, Amazon’s unlimited “shelf space” allows readers to access more diverse titles than the any standard bookstore. While the ABA claims they are concerned about more voices being heard and ideas being shared, it appears that by making “almost every title ever” available, Amazon has found one of the best ways to expose readers to new content.

After giving the letters a couple reads, Authors United and ABAs’ pleas to the DOJ seem to speak mainly on behalf of Big Five traditional publishing, while overlooking the opportunities small presses, indie publishing, and self-publishing been afforded by the online vendor. And incidentally, these publishing routes tend to have a keen interest in the midlist authors, niche genres, and minority voices traditional publishing is struggling to support.

Amazon’s resources invariably assist authors who pursue non-traditional routes by increasing their publicity—and their paychecks. Features like Amazon’s free author pages help writers build their platforms, manage their sales stats, and keep their readers up-to-date. Amazon is also a resource for curious readers to check out book reviews and to glean reading suggestions—especially when authors of non-traditional publishing routes have lower marketing budgets.

Certainly Amazon’s accused instances of blocking and curtailing the sale of millions of books and controlling content based on author prominence deserve to be investigated. But it seems Authors United and the ABA’s claims that Amazon’s daily business practices threaten the freedom of speech and expression may be going too far.

It’s difficult not to be a little jealous of Amazon’s success. But, publishers and booksellers must consider the reality that their own lack of creativity in marketing and distribution has birthed the need for the online retailer that is now dominating the markets. Which leads us to wonder: could a little bit more publishing resourcefulness be the key to challenging Amazon’s power?

It’s your turn to weigh in: has Amazon overstepped their bounds? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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