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Fiction, Writing
Why We Need Viral Literature
Amazon’s Monopoly on books is destroying literature
In late 2019, Bertelsmann, an international media conglomerate, acquired Penguin Random House. It is estimated by some that this means one-third of all book titles will be published by one company.
Much earlier, in 1960, Dwight Eisenhower’s attorney general, William Rogers, fretted over competition within the publishing industry when Random House tried to acquire Alfred A. Knopf, an esteemed New York publishing house. It turned out that the acquisition would only give the expanded company one percent of the publishing market, so Rogers chilled. Today, of course, Knopf is owned by Penguin Random House.
Today, we live in Ayn Rand’s world.
Neither Republican nor Democratic administrations seem to be concerned with the unfettered consolidation of corporate power. And consumers seem oblivious or unconcerned as well.
The result has been Amazon’s literary death march as it crushes everyone and everything in sight. While the sweatshop goes on its pandemic-fueled hiring spree, it continues to consolidate its hold on how and what people read.
Until Americans begin to truly rebel against corporate monopolies, instead of raging occasionally…
