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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The Telegraph has claimed niche authors are being unfairly hit by Amazon’s self-publishing... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon, the biggest bookseller in America, is also famously one of the most tight-lipped. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2013-03-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google will launch an $81 million (€60 million) Digital Publishing Innovation Fund to assist French news organizations with their efforts to move their content online and to increase advertising revenues. President Francois Hollande an ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2013-03-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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By curtailing paid commission to free ebook listing sites, Amazon is penalizing the big traffic producers that generate brand loyalty and other purchases. But why? Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's decision not to pay commission to affiliate sites linking to free Kindle ebooks likely signals a shift in strategy, and has affiliates up in arms. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives
[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon's got a new Kindle promotion vehicle, thanks to the National PTA, which wants to boost kids' reading with their families. Amazon's Kindle is the exclusive sponsor of the new Family Reading Experience program that the National PTA wants to roll out across the U.S. to boost kids' reading... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-02-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Children's literacy charity Beanstalk has published a "Charter for Children's... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Editor's Note: This story originally appears on FOLIO: sister site, minonline.com Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2013-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Companies like InPowered and Disqus have rolled out ad platforms for brands to promote articles and other more media-ish content with paid placements on publishers’ sites, and now Sharethrough is upping its stake in the game. Last September, the San Francisco-based ad startup launched Sponsored... Continue reading at AdWeek
[ AdWeek | 2013-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones is set to launch a UK “industry first” professional qualification in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Little, Brown has become the first publisher to launch a digital imprint devoted to frontlist... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The stores charge that secret agreements made between the publishers and Amazon give Amazon the advantage in selling ebooks, but some industry observers find flaws in their logic. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2013-02-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon is pursuing more direct relationships with literary agents and authors, targeting them... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Three US independent bookshops have launched a lawsuit against the big six publishers and Amazon... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall has climbed the Amazon charts following saturation media coverage... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Life of Pi has sold 'pi' number of books, selling 3,141,593 copies in all editions.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Mimi Spencer and Dr Michael Mosley's The Fast Diet (Short Books) proved once again the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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"Horrible Histories" author Terry Deary told a newspaper that public libraries are a drain on government resources that deprive authors of royalty checks. Best-selling childrens' book author Terry Deary has become the first major writer to speak up against the concept of public libraries. In... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2013-02-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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James Daunt has restated his view that Amazon operates in an advantageous fiscal environment in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon has fired the security company it employed to oversee its warehouse operations over... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2013-02-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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