To Amazon or Not to Amazon: That is the Question

If my web mistress Heather thinks Paypal is the best thing since sliced bread.  I believe, my publisher Randy thinks Amazon is the blight of the literary famine.  He is not alone with his thoughts.

In the last week I’ve approached six different books stores about doing a reading/signing.  Half were and half were not receptive to a reading/signing but on the whole each book store was interested in carrying Suitcase.

Each time I mentioned Suitcase could be ordered through Amazon I was met with hostility.  “We do not order anything through Amazon,” one shop owner said.  One bookstore owner even refused to look up my book on Amazon.  Another said “You make it hard for independent bookstores to order your book.” I liked Amazon and thought everyone liked Amazon.  So I asked Randy Morse, authorcloud publisher for his two cents.  He gave me more than I bargained for.

Independent bookstores don’t like Amazon because… THEY SEE AMAZON LEADING THE CHARGE AWAY FROM BRICKS & MORTAR TO ONLINE BOOKSELLING. AN INDEPENDENT BUYING FROM AMAZON GETS A DOUBLE-WHAMMY: THEY RECEIVE A LOWER DISCOUNT THAN THEY WOULD IF THEY PURCHASED DIRECTLY FROM MOST PUBLISHERS, AND THEY'RE ESSENTIALLY HELPING FINANCE THEIR BIGGEST COMPETITOR. AMAZON IS NOW BY FAR THE WORLD'S LARGEST SELLER OF PHYSICAL BOOKS, AND ARE CERTAINLY ONE OF, IF NOT THE LARGEST SELLER OF EBOOKS AS WELL.

Since Randy answered this part of my email question in all caps I think it was to emphasize this point.  He also added, but in upper and lower case, “As  Amazon begins to behave more and more as a publisher (first CreateSpace, now "Amazon Publishing") as well as bookseller as well as printer (Lightning Source),”  they begin to create a “good ol' fashioned monopoly.”

This is why, as stated in the second paragraph of my last blog, the company I registered, Pomegranate Productions, will sell and ship only (in the U.S. only, personally signed or not) the book version of Suitcase.  The publisher, authorcloud will sell ebooks and ship books to anyplace in the world.  While the other afore mentioned will (at this point) sell only ebooks.   I think this arrangement will make everyone happy.