Battle for original content, literary edition

First Netflix goes after original TV content, and now this:

Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers.

Amazon will publish 122 books this fall in an array of genres, in both physical and e-book form. It is a striking acceleration of the retailer’s fledging publishing program that will place Amazon squarely in competition with the New York houses that are also its most prominent suppliers.

I guess we really shouldn’t be surprised.

Amazon Rewrites the Rules of Book Publishing – NYTimes.com.