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 ]
News tagged with:
#online retailer
#current market
Kobo is due to launch a country-wide roadshow to showcase its ebook offering to independent... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-30 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The basketball captain and father introduces a book series meant to encourage kids to pick up books and take control of their surroundings.NBA superstar Amar'e Stoudemire is so passionate about promoting literacy that he has a tattoo on his forearm that says "Read." This week, the 29-year-old... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2012-07-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#encourage kids
#promoting literacy
#book series
For serial entrepreneur John Ossenmacher, cofounder, president, and CEO of ReDigi, which bills itself as “the world’s first pre-owned digital marketplace,” the copyright infringement case filed by Capitol Records in U.S. District Court in Manhattan at the start of the year to shut it down is... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#capitol records
#district court
Amazon appears to have been the big winner in picking up former Borders customers. According to new figures from Bowker Market Research, Amazon’s share of book spending in the first quarter of 2012 was 29%, up from 23% in the comparable period in 2011. Barnes & Noble’s share of spending, in... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-07-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#book spending
#amazon appears
#big winner
#borders customers
#barnes noble
Random House US has launched a television division, formed in partnership with fellow Bertelsmann... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#random house
Amazon UK has announced another self-published author has sold well though its retail site,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#amazon uk
#self-published author
Sad news for global freeloaders travellers looking to keep up with Gmail and Twitter on their Amazon e-reader. The online book seller has started closing in on excessive free web browsing, policing a 50MB data limit on its keyboard Kindle iterations. According to users on MobileRead, you'll... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-07-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#sad news
#kindle store
#july 1st
#kindle touch
In light of recent scandals, it's hard not to see this as a bit of image rehabilitation, but we'll do our best to take it at face value. News Corp is bringing its 18-month-old educational division to the fore by rebranding it Amplify and teaming up with AT&T to put tablets in the hands of... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#recent scandals
#educational division
#developing products
#high school
#trial run
#internal investigation
Random House has announced plans for the creation of a digital one-stop shop to aid the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#random house
#announced plans
News updates all day from Fast Company.Amazon is getting ready to introduce new tablets, Staples' president of U.S. retail, Demos Parneros, told Reuters Monday.Parneros said the online retailer will introduce five or six new tablet SKUs, or stock-keeping units, including those for a 10-inch... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#selling content
#helped establish
#leading distributor
When Erin Morgenstern’s first novel, The Night Circus, debuted last September, PW predicted in a starred review that this magical tale was destined for bestsellerdom. The hardcover went on to sell 167,000 copies through the outlets tracked by Nielsen BookScan, and the paperback, which was... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#outlets tracked
#nielsen bookscan
#long run
#pub date
#lead title
#barnes noble
Reveal, the celebrity weekly magazine published by Hearst, has launched its first website, which has attracted advertising from Gap. Continue reading at Media Week
[ Media Week | 2012-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
The publishing giant behind the Daily Mail is entering the travel arena with a bookings site. MailTravel.co.uk is described as offering a “robust new sales distribution channel to existing and new suppliers”. A& ... Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2012-07-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#publishing giant
#daily mail
Italian publisher RCS Libri has launched Rizzoli First, a digital-first list that will publish... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Costa has launched a new award for a single, previously unpublished short story, with the winner... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Bookshops are being offered 40% commission on the sale of books simply by hanging a poster in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#qr codes
Electrical retailer Dixons has said that it is waiting on Amazon to confirm the release date in... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#release date
Eason is to launch its e-reader later this year, the Irish bookseller has revealed, as it... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#launch e-reader
#irish bookseller
A new app discovery campaign has been launched for Kobo by mobile marketing agency Yodelmobile.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Despite a troubled print advertising market, publishers still believe in the power of glossy paper and ink: They launched 114 magazines in the first half of 2012. That puts the year roughly on par with 2011, when 111 new titles appeared during the same period, according to online database... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-07-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#local advertising
#american media
#advertising side
#ad dollars
#ad pages