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 ]
Harry Potter has joined the Kindle lending library.Amazon.com announced Thursday that on June 19, the ebook editions of J.K. Rowling's seven Potter novels will become part of the Kindle service available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Members can download a book for free once a month. Amazon's... Continue reading at Crains New York
[ Crains New York | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Fan of reading, you maverick you? Well if you're rocking an Android device, head on over to the Market Google Play and hit update on that Kindle app, as the online retailer from the Northwest has some fresh bits waiting for you. New today is access to a bevy of illustrated content -- like... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2012-03-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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According to a survey, 24 percent of people who said they had bought books from an online retailer in the last month also said they had seen the book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore first. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2011-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Mon, 07/11/2011 - 14:23 The Book Depository is kicking off Christmas with 24 hours of deals, beginning this Thursday (10th November). The online retailer will be offering customers one title every hour at a "superb price" from noon GMT on Thursday... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Lisa Campbell Publication Date: Fri, 27/05/2011 - 08:42 Managing Waterstone's will be a challenge in the current market and its new Russian oligarch owner is not going to support the chain with a large chequebook, the chain's new m.d., James Daunt, has said. read more Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-05-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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