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Authors' Amazon Awareness

Posted by Soulskill on from the big-fish-in-a-shrinking-pond dept.

Geoffrey.landis writes "Many book lovers were surprised this week when Amazon.com removed books from the publisher Macmillan from the shelves (later restored), including such popular imprints as St. Martin's, Henry Holt, and the science fiction publisher Tor. But readers shouldn't have been surprised, according to the Author's Guild. The Author's Guild lists a history of earlier instances where Amazon stopped listing a publisher's books in order to pressure them to accept terms, dating back to early in 2008, when Amazon removed the 'buy' buttons for works from the British publisher Bloomsbury, representing such authors as William Boyd, Khaled Hosseini, and J.K. Rowling. In response, the Author's Guild has set up a service called Who Moved My Buy Button to alert authors when their books are removed from Amazon's lists." Amazon's actions have generated ill-will on the parts of many authors, who — being authors — are only too happy to explain their viewpoints at length. Two such examples are Tobias Buckell's breakdown of why Amazon isn't the righteous defender of low-prices they claim to be and Charlie Stross's round-up of the situation.

2 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Free Market? by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 0, Troll

    Almost all monopolies are the result of government intervention. The anti-trust laws were written to break up monopolies that had been created by government intervention in the market. Some of the classic examples of "essential" monopoly were created by the government. When electricity and telephone service first came on the scene most cities had many competitors selling either. The government stepped in and decided to make both of these regulated monopolies.

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
  2. Re:30% for an author wouldn't be a bad deal by mobby_6kl · · Score: 1, Troll

    Im sorry?? Amazons work in selling these e-books is next to nothing.
    I can have a online e-book shop set-up by tomorrow. And a author upload service on the next day. Then all thats left, is moving money back and forth! You must be kidding!

    Why don't use then? You'd make a killing and save the poor Author's guild at the same time!