Topper Sherwood
Jul 27, 2017 · 1 min read

Thanks for this.

I was an editor and publisher of nonfiction in the US during the 1990s, when everyone was at the mercy of the big book chains. Now, the market is increasingly dominated by Amazon, which can make money — or, more significantly, harvest consumer data — off of your book(s) no matter how much below the cost of production you charge.

From what I can tell, the nonfiction writers you admire are using their books as little more than “calling cards” in today’s market because the only way to sell them in this media-saturated world is to overpay “one-stop” Amazon — a remarkably classic unregulated monopoly — more than it’s worth.

Of course, I wrote an allegorical novel about it…. www.carlarising.com

Topper Sherwood

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Journalist in Berlin. My novel, ‘Carla Rising,’ was published in 2015. In the US, I reported for the AP, Time magazine, & Smithsonian publications.