amazon
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“The Devil’s Checks Never Bounce”
Salon takes a closer look at Amazon’s (quiet) practice of giving grants to small publishers and literary nonprofits, questioning whether Amazon is “backing book culture or buying off critics.” “At a time when independent publishing is struggling to survive, in…
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Publishing Anxieties
The Authors Guild argues that the book publishing “ecosystem” is in a precarious situation, largely due to Amazon’s growing industry dominance, which they put in the context of a more general abandonment of protections for non-consumer markets against monopolies.
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Amazon, Coming to a Bookstore Near You?
You know Amazon? Our tax-evading (can someone please send them “The Throwaways”?), anti-union redefining, sweat-shop aspiring overlord. Remember how they tried to enlist us all in their war on local stores? They have a new trick up their sleeve. The…
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Avoiding Amazon in 2012
“Many people assume that if you want e-books, you’ve got to buy them from Amazon or another online retailer. They’re wrong about that. You most certainly can purchase e-books from your local independent bookstore. I’ve done it myself several times…
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On the “Elf Slaves of Online Shipping”
“It’s worth considering how the hell those goods get to you, so fast, and for free, when the company you bought them from is posting profits in the millions, or even, in the case of Amazon, billions.” At Mother Jones,…
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A Bit More on Amazon
This week has seen a lot of Amazon talk around the Internet. After Richard Russo’s New York Times op-ed on Amazon’s predatory practices, Farhad Manjoo responded at Slate, arguing against independent booksellers. Russo continued the conversation yesterday with an open…
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More on Amazon’s Assholery
“As I see it, the problem with Amazon stems from the fact that though it started out as a bookseller, it isn’t anymore, not really. It sells everything now, and it sells it all aggressively. Maybe Amazon doesn’t care about…
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Amazon Redefines Dick Move
We are no fans of Amazon here at The Rumpus. When we link to books we review, we link to small publisher websites or spdbooks.org or Powell’s. We’ve written about the online behemoth’s desire to avoid collecting sales taxes in…
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The Latest in Amazon Ventures
Amazon is introducing a new service that presents a noncommittal book-buying option for customers. The company is considering a Netflix-like rental service for ebooks, which unfortunately, only provides more opportunity to devalue books. And this devaluing has only caused publishers…
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On Demand Books
Politics and Prose in D.C. is exemplifying the latest in indie bookstore innovation—they’re introducing the printed-on-demand book. Apparently it takes six minutes to turn over a print book, and customers can watch it happen. And it’s all made possible by…
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Inauspicious News For Our Economy
The whole system of American outsourcing has rendered our industry incapable of producing the next technological innovation, which unfortunately is the key to reconstructing our economy. One example of this is the Kindle. Amazon doesn’t have the means for the…
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Amazon Sales Tax Battle Roundup
Amazon.com has been battling with states across the country over whether or not the company should collect sales taxes. The company’s practice of not collecting sales taxes in most states makes it difficult for brick-and-mortar stores to compete with their…