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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Amazon has tweaked its Kindle for Android app to run optimally on tablets running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Continue reading at Editor & Publisher
[ Editor & Publisher | 2011-04-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Barbara Casassus Publication Date: Wed, 20/04/2011 - 09:22 Editis has sold its Brussels-based educational, scientific and academic publishing subsidiary Groupe De Boeck to Ergon Capital Partners III SA for an undisclosed sum. The sale will enable Frances second largest publisher... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The 99-cents a week-service looks like the kind of thing that could drive the New York Times and the Associated Press batty. Instead, they've signed on for a piece of the action. Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon just eliminated one of the biggest differences between the Kindle and competing e-readers. It said today it will be rolling out the Kindle Library Lending feature later this year, allowing customers to borrow books for free from more than 11,000 libraries in the U.S. Other e-readers and... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 18/04/2011 - 15:44 Police intelligence analyst Elizabeth Haynes has won the first Amazon Rising Stars award of 2011. The mother-of-one, who lives in Kent, came top in a consumer-review poll asking readers which one of four Amazon-selected... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 14:57 Bold block colours and striking symbols define a new series of Icon books designed to reach young professionals intent on self-improvement. The guides aim to present weighty subjects in such areas as cognitive behavioural... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 15/04/2011 - 14:57 Bold block colours and striking symbols define a new series of Icon books designed to reach young professionals intent on self-improvement. The guides aim to present weighty subjects in such areas as cognitive behavioural... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Katie Allen Publication Date: Thu, 14/04/2011 - 09:15 German travel publisher MairDumont is to launch into the English-language market, with a new subsidiary to be based in the UK. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) launched a strategy consulting practice today. The goal of the practice is to assist companies of all walks in creation of original content strategies that will be beneficial to their overall business. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-04-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Penton Media today announced its new Marketing Services Group, a unit that will offer custom content, research and digital and sales optimization services to customers in 17 vertical markets. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon is dropping the price of its Kindle e-reader to $114 as it faces increasing competition from Apple, Barnes & Noble and other tablets. The new price point represents a $25 price cut on the Wi-Fi version, but it comes with one major trade-off: ads. The e-reader will be sold by Amazon,... Continue reading at AllThingsD
[ AllThingsD | 2011-04-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Things are looking up for the magazine industry, if results from magazine database MediaFinder.com are any indication. During 2011s first quarter, 54 new magazine titles were launched, more than double the number (25) of publications that debuted in first quarter 2010. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Bookseller Staff Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 09:06 The publisher behind The Bookseller is launching an ambitious new quarterly consumer book magazine and website this June, We Love This Book. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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With Russia the market focus country at the Fair, Russian publishers will be at Earls Court in force and there will be many associated literary and cultural events. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 11/04/2011 - 15:56 Eason has today (11th April) launched a new marketing campaign to emphasise the diversity of the customers it caters for. The Irish bookselling chain's new strapline is "Whatever you're into, get into Eason", and will start... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Fri, 08/04/2011 - 17:06 Vintage Classics has launched its fourth cover design competition for children, choosing The Wizard of Oz as this year's book. The competition, in partnership with the Times' Young Times and Random House Children's Books,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Thu, 07/04/2011 - 15:58 A husband-and-wife team has launched an e-publishing company for new authors. Cornwall-based lawyers Nigel and Abbie Flanagan are calling on unpublished writers to submit the first 50 pages of their work to Wink Publishing.... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Wed, 06/04/2011 - 09:13 Gardners will look to create a mobile phone app for Hive after its official launch. The book wholesaler has been working with e-consultancy firm Tangent One to build the Hive website, which will sell books directly to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 06/04/2011 - 09:16 Independent publisher Continuum has launched an ebook store, featuring a selection of titles across Continuum's humanities, education and religion lists. Around 2,000 titles will be available for download in Adobe PDF and... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Graeme Neill Publication Date: Tue, 05/04/2011 - 09:38 Profits surged to £7.5m at Quercus last year, as the independent announced HarperCollins publishing director Susan Watt is to set up a new imprint called Heron Books. In its financial results for the year to 31st December,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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