Fantasy author accuses the online giant of using its market dominance ‘to control what we write and what we read’The grande dame of fantasy Ursula K Le Guin has weighed in forcefully to the debate about Amazon’s role in publishing. In a blogpost on the site Book View Cafe, entitled “Up the Amazon with the BS Machine, or Why I Keep Asking You Not to Buy Books from Amazon”, the American author has spoken out against what she describes as the company’s increasing influence not only on the bookselling market but also on which books get published, promoted and read. Her fierce conclusion is: “Every book purchase made from Amazon is a vote for a culture without content and without contentment.”After an analysis of how the “Best Seller Machine” has worked in the last decades, Le Guin writes that the online retailer is changing the culture of publishing. The Amazon model, she writes, is “easy salability, heavy marketing, super-competitive pricing, then trash and replace”. The ideal book, under this template, is “a safe commodity, a commercial product written to the specifications of the current market, that will hit the BS list, get to the top, and vanish. Sell it fast, sell it cheap, dump it, sell the next thing.” Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2015-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Concerned about Amazon.com's low pricing of ebooks, publishers had taken measures as early as 2009 such as "windowing," a practice of delaying ebook releases to benefit sales of hardcover editions, Apple said in a filing in an ebook price-fixing lawsuit.The U.S. Department of Justice in an... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Swedish husband-and-wife crime writing duo Alexandra and Alexander Ahndoril, who write together... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon.com has updated its mobile app store to include support for its Chinese customers, in a sign that the U.S. company could be preparing to sell its Kindle e-readers and tablets in the country.The update effectively launches a new version of Amazon's app store built in the Chinese language.... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2013-05-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In Brazil, Saraiva gets a new CEO, the Ministry of Culture moves oversite of book policies back to Brasilia, and a university press finds success with free ebooks by its professors. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Condé Nast is taking its glossy, high-style images off the page and into the b-to-b marketplace. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-05-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Adobe’s Digital Dispatch Adobe has been crowing recently about some numbers pointing to increased demand, innovative advertising models and new revenue streams in digital publishing. In April the company, known for its workflow and... Continue reading at Publishing Executive
[ Publishing Executive | 2013-05-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bloomsbury and Faber's Drama Online, launched today (1st May) in beta, includes a partnership... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-05-01 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Women’s fiction blog Novelicious is to launch a new digital imprint. Novelicious Books... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A website giving away free ebooks by self-published authors will launch tomorrow (1st May) in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl has returned to the summit of the Official UK Top 50 after a week... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Not-for-profit publisher Comma Press has produced a free app aimed at helping commuters escape... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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World Book Night is launching a monthly book club, offering reading recommendation to its... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has reported a 22% rise in sales over the last three months, the same growth increase as... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A husband-and-wife bookselling team have described handing a petition into Downing Street calling... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon is hiring for positions in Russia, suggesting its Kindle ebookstore will open there soon and where they will take on several established, but not yet dominant, competitors. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last Friday, when Amazon made 14 original TV pilots available for free viewing on its streaming video service, it launched an experiment that could do to TV production what the Internet juggernaut did to the book trade. The polite business term is disruption, but that’s not the word people whose... Continue reading at Slate
[ Slate | 2013-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Jingdong, China's third place commercial online bookstore, is boosting its challenge to Dangdang and Amazon's dominance by focusing on service and international titles. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Last week two of China's leading ebookstores Dangdang.com began offering nearly all of their ebooks for free, a move criticized by authors and publishers alike. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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This article branches off of a longer story we're tracking called Apple's New Technology Partners: What Developers Need To Know.Steve Jobs once said said, "people don't read anymore." He wasn't the only tech pundit pronouncing books dead in the middle of the last decade, as people turned to... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-04-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Kobo unveiled a new luxury e-reader designed to target "the world's most passionate... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-04-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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