E-commerce

E-commerce

E-commerce

Introduction

The worldwide publishing industry recently is facing many financial problems. The growth in many publishing sectors has slowed down. This is due to the recent financial crises, which has affected the publishing industry as well. “Books R Us” specializes in publishing books in the area of Science fiction and fantasy. “Books R us”, along with the industry, has also been affected by the economic downturn.

In this competitive and complex environment, many organizations struggle to survive. These organizations develop many strategies reviewing their goals, assessing their strengths and weaknesses conducting market research and choosing the best alternatives from the research outcomes. They then choose to pursue strategies such as cost leadership, differentiation or Focus. (Porter, 1985).

In past, most of the power in the book industry has been not in the favor of the authors. This was because the power of publishers had been centralized to only a few who controlled the profits of the industry. Hence, authors were left with a little share of the publishing pie. (Berinstein, 2006). But this has not been the case since the introduction of e-commerce.

As we all know that the aspiring authors have to face many rejections when submitting manuscripts to the dominant Book publishing companies. This has made the writer's tasks difficult. But fortunately, this is not the case anymore. With the introduction of new technology, writers have quick and affordable access to print and publish their books. There are many more methods introduced, such as Print-on-demand, which make book printing more efficient. In this method, as soon as an order is placed the printing process of the book initiates and they are shipped immediately. The outcome of using Print on Demand is in saving the costs of large prints and warehouses which were the traditional practices of the industry.

Discussion:

The Print on Demand method offers many cost saving features, where the book is as good as published using the traditional method and there is less waste of production because the order is placed considering the demand. Additionally, the POD book publishing companies keep an electronic copy of book which can be easily available for readers on electronic media.

The selling foundation for these books has also increased with the introduction of many online bookstores and online giants such as Amazon.com, booksamillion.com and wallmart.com. The recent technological innovations, such as tablets and smart phones, adapted by people worldwide have also made the access eBooks much easier. This has lead to quick and additional access to physical stores as well as online business and libraries.

Moreover, in previously established methods, the author had to surrender part of their rights to the publishers,. But with the introduction of the new method, the author can have all the rights to himself.

The greatest advantage that writers can benefit from is that there is a relatively more chance that the book can get published. Hence the POD business model provides a more flexible structure for publishing books.

Hence, the importance of considering online publishing in the current environment cannot ...