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Thursday, June 12, 2014

Quotation of the Day - Gaiman: 'Nothing Matches a Good Indie'



From Shelf Awareness Pro, Thursday | June 12, 2014 | Volume 2 | Issue 2273


"I don't think that anything actually matches the experience of actually going into a good independent bookshop."
--Neil Gaiman in a Salon interview entitled "I'm Obviously Pissed at Amazon"

This whole Amazon/Hachette thing...  I admit to not having a 100% grasp of the whole scenario, and I can even admit that I can see both sides, to a degree.  But I work for a publisher.

Amazon has ceased to sell Hachette books.  They're claiming Hachette inventory levels are delaying shipments to 2-4 weeks.  They've removed the preorder buttons from not-yet-published Hachette titles. 
 
Why?  Amazon wants to make more money.  They seem to feel that all e-books, regardless of who published them, how much it cost to publisher, all should sell/cost almost the same price.  Well, it's not their call.  If it cost a publisher $1million to buy a book from author #1, and $100,000 to buy it from author #2, and author #3's cost $200,000 but requires all sorts of graphics or photos, etc., how can they all cost the same?  Let's not talk about the potential market for each of those books being different:  will a colonoscopy text book sell the same as a Harry Potter book?  Why don't the Kia, Mercedes and Lamborhini vehicles all cost the same?

It's America.  We all want to make more money.  But it's not up to Amazon to set the pricing for a book an author wrote, a publisher published and a printer printed.  If they want to do that, they should become a publisher themselves.

Oh, wait, they ARE a publisher now, too!  Well then, go ahead, set your own book costs/selling prices as low as you want, but you can't tell ME what to price MY product at, Amazon!  Sure, you can choose to not sell it, but as a customer, I guess I'll go where I need to go (Hello, B&N!) to get what I want!

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