Explorations In Reading, Writing, and Publishing
Amazon is huge—most everything you can think of is or could be sold there…
Many people, bookstores, and publishers are mad as hell about Amazon.
How dare they sell books for less than they pay for them?
How dare they sell their reading devices at cost?
How dare they do business better than many other companies?
Sure, they get some things wrong—really, there is nothing perfect in this world—but, analogically, if you get a hit in baseball only one out of three times ( .300 ), your doing great—so, Amazon, imho, has a batting average of around .598.
And, even if I still like holding a book in my hands and will never tire of it, my Kindle is my literary treasure house…
So, all that to build up to introducing you to author Art Edwards and an article he wrote on The Nervous Breakdown, Amazon is the Devil, and Other Reasons to Love Them.
A few excerpts from the article:
“Has a more imposing windmill than Amazon ever been chased? In less than twenty years, the online monolith has established itself as the unalterable king of the book-buying world. And isn’t every company pretty much out to destroy its competition?”
“Amazon seems to be my online equivalent of Starbucks, another bare-knuckles Seattle company going out of its way to crush the little guy at every instance.”
[ in regard to Amazon challenging legacy publishers ] “Traditional publishing has published ninety percent of the books I’ve valued over the years, books that changed my life and made me want to be a writer. But the last decade or so has seen them get undeniably safe with the books they choose to publish and promote. I would even go so far as to say much of the valuable literary talent in the country today isn’t being published by New York publishing but by independent presses.”
“As evil as Amazon is, they’ve been completely supportive of the idea that anyone can be a publisher…“
Do go over and read Art’s complete article—lots of details that Fair Use won’t let me copy…
Do you own a Kindle?
Do you love your Kindle?
Do you buy books (or, other things) from Amazon?
Do you think Amazon is the Devil?
Do, please, share your thoughts and feelings in our Comments :-)
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Although Amazon.de has to keep to the prescribed list price for books it is the favourite enemy for book stores great and small and publishers (even big publishers who sell masses of books via Amazon). I have heard rumours of authors who have been “banned” from public readings in local book stores because they sell their own books on their web site using amazon.
Before I moved last year I could reach my local book shop in a walk of less than ten minutes. I knew the owner and all the staff, I did readings there and I bought my (German) books there. Amazon was for English books and finding out prices. Now I buy most of my books there, sometimes toys or software. Yet for unknown reasons I sell most books through a smaller German online store. I really wonder why.
Very interesting, Martina, that Amazon.de is different than here in the USA…
Also, tomorrow my post will be about other places than Amazon to buy books online :-)
I love my Kindle. I’ am an eternal wanderer and keeping all the books I read would be impossible. With my Kindle I can carry and do hundreds of books in a light small package. No more leaving a book behind and never revisiting it, mostly.
Other than the smell and feel of a book I actually prefer my Kindle. Reason number one: indexing. Where is that phrase by that author and which book? Quick and easy to search with the Kindle. Reason number two: light and the screen is easier to read than many paperbacks.
There is some cons to the device due to it’s nature yet it does the pros so well they are easy to forget about.
I know what you mean: Some cons but lots of pros :-)