Thursday, December 15, 2011
"Publishers Weekly" on Amazonian demands
Some of my regular readers have no doubt already seen this on Facebook or elsewhere, but I think it is important for both writers and readers to be informed about such issues--particularly those of us with publishers who sell on Amazon or who buy books from Amazon. Just as it is important for Amazon to understand the issues publishers face...
4 comments:
Alas, I must once again remind large numbers of Chinese salesmen and other worldwide peddlers that if they fall into the Gulf of Spam, they will be eaten by roaming Balrogs. The rest of you, lovers of grace, poetry, and horses (nod to Yeats--you do not have to be fond of horses), feel free to leave fascinating missives and curious arguments.
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Thanks, I've been wondering about this issue for some time. We've lost a lot of excellent small publishing houses and small bookstores here in Canada.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was glad to see some clarification. Smaller publishers have really struggled with chain co-op and online bookstore demands.
ReplyDeleteBut of course now Amazon regards itself as a publisher, so perhaps it has new motivations.
I hate the way businesses become Behemoths and then think that it's OK to see off any competition. It's all part of this mad notion that companies have to grow year on year or they're failing their shareholders. That's completely unsustainable in the long term. A healthy economy should have the capacity to sustain a great diversity of vendors.
ReplyDeleteI suddenly heard Julia Child's voice saying, "Be-HE-moth of a lobster!"
ReplyDeleteYes, it even happens on the little local level with a certain big box store coming in and flattening part of the world for a parking lot and store and then driving local shops to ruin.
Unless Amazon desires to be the only publisher and seller in the world, I do not see how some of its current efforts can be healthy for its own goals, insofar as I can discern them.