I'm not as upset with Amazon starting their own publishing houses as I am with the fact that those are gradually fitting themselves more and more into a traditional model.
There was a news release a couple of years back when they hired an editor from deep in the bowels of the NYC system, and I thought, oops, there goes discovery of indie authors for Amazon imprints. A year after that, Konrath mentioned on his blog that he had his agent submit to them, and I realized my worst fears had come true that quickly. Also, I have a friend in the KU bonuses stratosphere who never got an offer from Zon, which two years before, would definitely have happened.
It's sad for us, but it's sad for them too, because that system doesn't work well any more. It misses far too many bestsellers. So they replaced the fiery stallion of innovation with that limping old nag of tradpub who keeps walking around in the same circles, unaware there's a world outside that fence.
This sort of thing is why us oldsters sometimes get pessimistic. But then, when I arrived the people who had truly been in the goldrush (partly of erotica and of books with self-made covers) thought people like me heralded the beginning of the end. omg, then KU1 and then the end of KU1? whoa, that was a whirlwind of hysteria. :
And I know trade published people who are just catching up to what indie life was in 2012, and they aren't ever going to fully catch up (not that I can claim I am currently caught up either). You're right. The only constant for indies is change. I would like
my golden days back, but that's simply not going to happen.
Like JRTomlin, I'm expecting the end for my FT status one year soon. That I got so many years is something of a miracle, and I'm grateful I jumped into KDP when I did.