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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Red magazine is launching the Red Book Club and doubling the amount of space it dedicates to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-04-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
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LG has made no secret of its fondness for flexible e-paper, but those dreams became a reality today, with the announcement of a six-inch display that promises to "revolutionize the ebook market." The malleable plastic display sports a resolution of 1024 x 768 and can bend at an angle of up to 40... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Waterstones launched a new Buy One Get One Half Price (BOGOHP) promotional offer on selected... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Kindle Touch 3G is to be made available in the UK from 27th April as part of a major launch... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-28 00:00:00 UTC ]
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It didn't take a Hogwarts magician to know this day would eventually come. The bookstore feature of J.K. Rowling's Pottermore website went live Tuesday, enabling English-language readers to buy the digital editions of all seven Harry Potter novels—and the audiobook editions—from anywhere in the... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The April 2012 issue of Fast Company is now available on the iTunes Store, and it's optimized for reading on the new iPad. The image below shows how much sharper the type looks when viewed on the new iPad with the Retina display. The images are in high definition, too, rasterized at four times... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-03-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Bringing to the marketplace has always been a struggle for emerging writers, but the evolution of digital publishing formats is seeing a new wave of authors skipping the print medium entirely. Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-03-25 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Tim Coates, founder of online e-lending service Bilbary, has pledged to raise money to donate to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Google is about to launch ebooks on the Google Play entertainment portal in France, according to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Egmont Press is launching a new imprint for humour books, and will partner with leading... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Editions Gallimard will not sign up to sell its list through Apple's iBookstore because the... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins has launched an ebook imprint, called Mischief, which will focus on erotica and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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A looming lawsuit could further solidify Amazon's dominance in the book business. That might be good for readers' wallets, but it also might be bad for readers in the long term. Here 's why. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2012-03-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Salon du Livre in Paris will open for four days on 16th March with a notable new addition... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Edinburgh International Book Festival and the British Council are launching the Edinburgh... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Wiley is planning to sell a number of professional and trade business assets across its culinary... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Dedicated digital bookseller Bilbary will launch in the US in the next fortnight and in the UK... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fast Company is now available to read on your iPad.Starting with the March 2012 issue, Fast Company is offering a digital version of each month's print issue on the iTunes App Store and Newsstand. This is first and foremost a way to read the complete magazine on your iPad, but it also includes... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2012-03-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Despite consumer uncertainty in buying online, and publisher uncertainty in partnering with Amazon, ebooks sales are dominating the market. Continue reading at The Atlantic
[ The Atlantic | 2012-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Faber is to add to its series of Faber Academy creative writing courses with a new online course... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-03-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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