I think many writers are attempting to escape cubical work, even if they could do it in their pajamas. I also think that one of the reasons so many self-publishers have retired is because they were spending more time on the cubical work than the artistic stuff.
The basic problem is that writing fiction is a line of business where there are basically no barriers to entry, and that means it's intensely competitive. That won't change, and Amazon, Bookbub, and Facebook have realized they can make a ton of money providing advertising for desperate writers.
So the better direction isn't to fight against this reality, but to sidestep it altogether. And that means a curated inventory, where the competition is greatly reduced, an inventory with zero hatting, plagiarism/counterfeit books or bad formatting/editing. It means an inventory and cat list readers can trust. It also means that the third-party ad sites, and especially the CPC scams, are no longer relevant.
I'm not trying to be contrary, but it comes unbidden. What you're describing is a book store, or its more modern versions, penguinrandomhouse.com or the Nook Store. Amazon is slowly, relentlessly crushing that business model. Any business plan you have that includes getting rid of Amazon as a necessary element is doomed to fail. So is any business plan that includes you somehow siphoning away a substantial percentage of Amazon's customers.
That's the bitter truth. If you're going to make a decent living in the long term as a self-published author of genre fiction, you're going to have to figure out how to do it with Amazon as a major account. Probably the major account. Or you're going to figure out what no one else has managed to do, except JK Rowling. Amazon cut her an incredible deal. I hope others can become similarly successful, but I haven't seen proof of it.
Identifying obstacles is how we further the conversation, so I'm good with contrarianism. With that said...
Bookstores depend on the traditional publishing and distribution system, which I'm suggesting has no bearing on the future of self-publishing. As for Amazon, they're also a bookstore - specifically, a 19th century, mail-order business model version of a bookstore - they just added self-publishers to the mix...and all of the hatters, as well.
I understand your argument, but it's philosophically grounded in the 20th century
Market of Things - selling IPs based upon packaging. Windowing is an example of this strategy: hardcover, trade, mass-paperback, movie version, limited editions and box sets. All the same IP, the same words - just different packaging...and therefore, different prices, which leverages different levels of demand. The
Market of Things is based upon scarcity. The
Market of Access, on the other hand, is a post-scarcity market environment. And that's where we are now. So...
As for Amazon's distribution channel dominance, they're extremely susceptible to competition right now because they're failing all over the place. And while I'm aggressively supporting a new and fundamentally different approach to monetizing literature, I'm not suggesting anyone abandon Amazon, or any of the other distribution channels.
The one constant I've seen for 2019 - and this goes for all creatives - is to be everywhere possible; which means - create as many revenue streams as possible. And I think this is part of where KKR might be going. Don't limit yourself to the existing financial boxes we've been indoctrinated to believe in. We used to believe that the
Query-Go-Round was the only way. Get an Agent. Get a Publisher. Wait years while you perfect your only manuscript. Now we believe we must publish frequently, hit the main genre tropes, chase trends, live in the long-tail commodity bin, all the while spending huge percentages of our profits on visibility.
In this model, the distribution channel is taking a percentage off the top, but there's only a top to take from if you pay them for visibility. How is that better than the traditional model? There's no independence. If Amazon shrinks our percentage what are we going to do? If they add a flat fee to get our books listed, in addition to AMS, what are we going to do? It's their court, their basketballs, their rules. Take it or leave it.
Any business model that depends on Amazon as a primary distribution channel is doomed, I don't care what they're selling. The key is differentiation - what isn't Amazon doing well - or at all?