Amazon vs. local bookstore, a different view
My friend and co-author Jana sent me this link to an interesting article on Slate.com.
We actually had better help getting our books on Amazon than from local bookstores and booksellers when our book came out. I think this writer makes some valid points.
On the surface, the "buy local" movement looks like an easy, "well, duh!" sort of argument, but it's more complex than that, and I like this author's approach.
Thanks Jana!
We actually had better help getting our books on Amazon than from local bookstores and booksellers when our book came out. I think this writer makes some valid points.
On the surface, the "buy local" movement looks like an easy, "well, duh!" sort of argument, but it's more complex than that, and I like this author's approach.
Thanks Jana!
Thanks, Keri! This article shows 20/20 vision on the future of book sales. Indie bookstores only have a future as a social experience - coffee shop and all - that people are willing to use regularly. Otherwise, stop whining! In the UK, this issue is comparable with the demise of the dear old village shop. Middle class folk at the local pub deplore its disappearance, while themselves driving their SUVs every week to stock up with groceries at the out-of-town hypermarket. Hypocrisy!
My behaviour as a compulsive book buyer may be significant: I now get 95% of my books via Amazon. I used to go to Waterstones a lot (the best UK book chain), but now do so only rarely. To cope with all those overheads, Waterstones is pushing high turnover pulp fiction and chicklit at the expense of variety. It's no longer a magnet!
Amazon offers a vast variety of books at low prices, and not always from its own warehouse. A lot of the books I buy come from indies on Amazon marketplace.
The downtown bookstore, alas, is a moribund business model. Indeed, downtown in general may be moribund!
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