Amazon
is known for its ruthless business practices—it doesn’t merely squeeze
competition, it strangles it until it dies.
Amazon
currently sells 40% of all new books sold in the USA. Their percentage of the market
in ebooks is even larger—perhaps 66% according to the above-cited Salon.com
article.
Amazon
is not merely a book seller, but a publisher, and it favors its own imprints
and minimizes the ability for readers to find its competitors. The most famous
case on point is that of Hachette. Check this URL for Stephen Colbert’s clips
on the issue: http://thecolbertreport.cc.com/search?keywords=Hachette
And
the below is quoted from a letter sent by a group of authors to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos
and its BOD:
About six months
ago...Amazon began sanctioning Hachette authors' books. These sanctions
included refusing preorders, delaying shipping, reducing discounting, and using
pop-up windows to cover authors' pages and redirect buyers to non-Hachette
books.
These sanctions have
driven down Hachette authors' sales at Amazon.com by at least 50 percent and in
some cases as much as 90 percent. These sales drops are occurring across the
board: in hardcovers, paperbacks, and e-books. (http://www.authorsunited.net/)
Well-known
is Amazon’s dislike of sexy covers, adult-oriented books and erotica; it seems
to especially target purveyors of steamy books. Though Amazon touts its
independent publishing program as a boon for writers, many indie published
authors, especially in erotic romance, complain that Amazon’s search engine has
made it difficult if not impossible for readers to find their books. The Kindle
Unlimited program has cut further into their book revenues. Ellora’s Cave, one
of the most prominent publishers of steamy and erotic romance on the web, has
downsized radically, citing a massive drop in Amazon sales of its books as the
reason.
The
loyalty of many customers to Amazon is misplaced. For example, Amazon often
does not feature the best online price for a book or other item. A couple of
cases in point:
On
30 Sept, the price of one of my shorties, Highland
Vampire, on Amazon was $2.51. The price at Harlequin’s site was $2.39.
Being
the daughter of Brits, I’m a tea drinker and lately have been into using loose
teas (they really do make a better cuppa). Initially I had been purchasing from
Amazon—isn’t that the place we’ve all become accustomed to checking first? Then
I went to the Twinings Tea site and found that I’d been grotesquely
overpaying. My fave Darjeeling at Amazon
costs $8.24 and it’s an “add-on item,” which is some sort of irritating
practice at Amazon—I couldn’t get the tea without buying other stuff, and I
couldn’t find a work-around for that bit of Amazonian weirdness.
The
same tea is almost half the price--$4.49—at Twinings.
Like
many, I have come to rely on Amazon for so much! I listen to music on my Amazon
music player on both laptop and cellphone, and download music from Amazon as
well. I’m an Amazon affiliate. I also buy books for my Kindle Paperwhite, which
I love, from Amazon.
But
maybe it’s time to cut the cord. Why should I fund an entity that seeks to
exploit me, maybe even put me out of business?
I’ll
probably take down my Amazon affiliate ads—that won’t hurt, as they’ve never
earned me a penny. I’ve changed my email signature line, which used to direct
folks to my Amazon author pages, to instead include my website and blog. Other
changes will be harder.
I’m
an Ellora’s Cave author. I also have books placed with two other publishers
that have disappointed me in myriad ways—see these links:
http://www.harlequinlawsuit.com/
and scroll down to #9 at
So
I want to go indie. But Createspace and KDP are fabulous platforms for
self-publishing. How ethical is it, given my concerns, to use those platforms?
And
beyond my personal worries, there’s the greater problem. Amazon sells a huge number
of books, films, music and other creative and factual works.
Should
one entity control so much of what goes into our minds and thoughts?
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