Here's my wee thoughts on the whole Macmillan/Amazon dust up and why it pisses me off:
1) A whole bunch of people I know and respect write for Macmillan and are now frozen out of the world's largest retailer of books, which means less income for these awesome creators.
2) As a fledgling indie publisher who uses Amazon's DRM services as a means of distribution, what are the chances of me getting a Macmillan author to write for me once they know I use Amazon and DRM?
3) Most of the writers I read publish with Macmillan and I buy a sizable wedge of those books from Amazon, which means Amazon has now lost about 80% of my business, if not 100% because the authors I want to read are no longer available through their website.
4) Both Macmillan and Amazon are being greedy fuckers. Seriously, you assholes make millions (and in Amazon's case, billions) of dollars a year, so why don't the two of you budge a little bit and not penalize the people who's sweat and energy you make said millions/billions of dollars off of (Yeah, like either entity is paying attention to me, the consumer.)
Yeah, everyone should buy indie, I agree with this in principal, but guess how many folks across America have access to an indie bookstore? My guess is it's around 1% the other 99% are dependent on B&N and Amazon. And most B&N stores don't stock a lot of lesser known author titles, so that means less exposure and distribution for creators who deserve the public's time and money.
Man , this kind of crap just pisses me off to no end.
B&N also has a website and the lesser known authors can be bought there for only a few pennies more than amazon. As does Books a Million. Nobody has to buy from amazon solely to get a discount.
ReplyDeleteAnd some indies are capable of online ordering, too, such as Warwick's in CA and Mystery Lovers in PA. Powell's, too. Less or no discount, of course, but then I know my money is going to support the business and its employees, not to greedy shareholders.
This debate clearly has more to do with Apple horning in on Amazon's territory than it does about Macmillan; what sucks, though, is it's writers who're going to bear the brunt of the fallout.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to books, there's not one I've been unable to get at my local Borders, which is, for me at least, better than using Amazon.evil. (And, I kind of like supporting a Michigan-based co like Borders if I can.)
ReplyDeleteStill, the whole situation sucks. I can't support Amazon for jacking writers like this just because of a pissy dispute between them and MacMillan. And you know Amazon will win.
I hate this sort of shit. I hate big companies like Amazon.evil and Wal-(Evil)Mart that can do this shit and it doesn't hurt them. It hurts the people who can't just roll with it.
Naomi--I use all of those websites, and to be honest, over the last six months I've bought the majority of my books from the Poisoned Pen here in AZ,(Barbara and the crew are gracious as Hell to me and their selection of hardboild and noir titles are second to none.)and the majority of their business is from internet and mail order sales. Once again, I strongly encourage buying indie, but for most Americans who aren't book people, they're still going to buy from Amazon.
ReplyDeleteChris--I agree with you on this 100%, Amazon is just being a great big baby over this one.
Clair--My issue with Borders and B&N (and Wal-mart) is that they freeze out certain authors based on titles alone. (Speaking of Macmillan authors, my friend Dennis Tafoya's first novel, Dope Theif, was frozen out of both stores based on the title alone. Derek Nikitas newest novel isn't being stocked either.) But I'm with you on big corporations. As a people, we've allowed our companies to dictate too much of how we live our lives and dictate our own economy. Once again, buy local.
I think Amazon is handling this poorly, to say the least. But, you know, an impasse is never a one-sided affair.
ReplyDeleteHey, fifty years...we're all dead anyway. Just glee-ing up the mood. Hey details forthcoming on Noircon.
ReplyDelete