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As of this writing, Amazon hasn't re-activated the BUY button to many of the MacMillan books, physical or ebook versions. I'm not a MacMillan author (which covers Tor, St. Martins, many others) but many of my friends are. John Scalzi says it best on his blog today, A Call For Author Support, that it isn't just about big corporations. There are authors whose livelihood have been affected by this tug-of-war.
Remember there’s more to bookselling than Amazon. Offline there are brick and mortar bookstores — go visit one. They like visitors. Tell them I sent you. Online there is Barnes and Noble. There’s Powell’s. IndieBound will hook you up. Specialty bookstores have their own web sites. You can often buy books online from the publishers themselves. Hell, even Walmart.com sells books.
Yes, yes. I know, you know Amazon isn’t the only place to buy books online. But that doesn’t mean you use those other places. I had a friend who used Barnes & Noble’s web site for the very first time in a decade today, because, as it happens, Amazon wouldn’t let him buy a book. He was pleased to discover B&N let him use PayPal. Good for him. The point is, he didn’t let a balky retailer keep him from getting a book he wanted. I suspect too many people do just that; they get used to going to that one place online and forgetting there are any other options.
I know most readers who want a book will know how to get that paticular book, on or offline, but there are so many people who are so focused on this Amazon-MacMillan thing right now, yelling at each other about prices and rights and ebooks and whatnot, that I feel the need to help my author-friends who are trying to reach readers LOOKING FOR THEIR BOOKS. Maybe even readers who are unaware about what's happening.
Man, it's like a war zone out there. I read posts telling authors they are stupid to side with MacMillan, while others want to boycott Amazon, and yet others threaten to forever buy MacMillan books second-hand or pirate its authors. No matter what, the losers are still the authors because readers looking for their books can't buy them, and you know how clicking off a page could be a lost sale.
There are so many conspiracies being bandied about, I think we need Jack Bauer to save the publishing world. ;-P
Bear with me while I learn. The first button likes the POST. The second button likes the BLOG site. Please help me by "liking" me. Thanks!
2 comments:
I personally love getting intimate with a book in a bookstore. Holding it, carressing it, umm, I'll stop there. LOL
Debbie H
So every Kindle user is still screwed. I think this sucks. I'd be pissed if I had a Kindle (which I intended on purchasing before this) and the prices jumped to $15.00. And for what? It's not paper so it's not costing them any more. Sheesh. What a mess.
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