Writers Battle Amazon

[qcrisp]

Again, must be brief. I also don't see why Amazon and the big publishers shouldn't co-exist. It seems odd to me - because I'm not a businessman? - that discussions such as this, and, for instance, the whole e-book versus print book thing, are so often couched in terms of a zero sum game. I wonder where this comes from.

The other thing was that, I would be interested in learning more details about the whole price-fixing thing. One person's protection is another person's protection, so to speak:

Wikipedia (Links)

Lang_Law

[Sand]

There are, of course, other reasons to deprecate Amazon. Their labour practices aren't great and, in the UK anyway, there has been controversy about how little tax they pay. They aren't, however, exactly unique in either of those. My own preference is to try to buy direct from small presses and small, local bookshops, because I value both. I recognise, of course, that this isn't practical for everybody or in all circumstances.

[Viva June]

I closed my Amazon account years ago and used to be quite proud of the fact. Imagine my surprise when I learned that AbeBooks, where I have made nearly all my purchases since then, is in fact just an Amazon subsidiary. I guess they keep it running to lure in unsuspecting fools like me.

Are there any independent marketplaces similar to AbeBooks, with an equivalent number of participating sellers?

I sometimes find/purchase books through alibris.com, but can't say whether or not they've been swallowed up by one of the bigger fish by now. They seem to have more-or-less the same listings as ABE and Amazon.com. Biblio.com is comprised of listings from small local booksellers. I've only ordered once through them, but if I recall correctly the books were from A Change of Hobbit, which is a brick-and-mortar store in CA. So that's one way to buy online without feeding the MegaCorps.

Ashamed to say, I'm a big Amazon customer, and really see no way around it despite the fact that I can't stand eBooks and will never make the switch. I've cancelled cable television service, and use Amazon Instant Video for basically all of my viewing needs (supplemented with Netflix). I'm addicted to 2-day free "Prime" shipping. I occasionally purchase directly from small press publishers like Subterranean, but I'm no martyr. With the discounts (usually 20% - 30%) Amazon offers, plus the free shipping, it makes little sense for me to go direct to the publisher unless there's a risk of the title going out of stock before Amazon gets any copies (which happens but is unusual).