amazon
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Amazon Unintentionally Rewards Scammers
Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited product offers readers an all-you-can-eat model for book subscriptions. The books are mainly self-published titles (and Amazon pays authors by the number of pages read). The model sounds great in theory—readers download books risk-free, encouraging discovery of…
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Convincing People Plastic Is Paper
Amazon just announced its newest Kindle model—there are slight technological enhancements over its predecessor, but the bigger shift is in significant aesthetic changes meant to make the device feel more like a book. But plastic polymers are never going to have…
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Books That Aren’t Books
Bookstores around the world have been working to reinvent themselves in the wake of Amazon’s rise, and stocking gift items has been a chief tactic. If you’ve never been to a Waterstone’s in the UK, here’s a sampling of what…
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How to Hack Your Way to Being a “Best Selling” Book on Amazon
Because of the high bar, the term “bestselling author” was [once] a term with some meaning. It was seen as something that was earned through a lot of hard work. But today, that designation has changed—for the worse. It’s like…
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When Serial Killers Write Memoirs
In a surreal exchange between fiction and reality, Amazon recently allowed a convicted serial killer to self-publish his memoir where he pleads his innocence, much to the horror of his victims’ families. The memoir in question was quickly pulled when…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
Chicago’s Wicker Park has been gentrifying, but Quimby’s, a quirky indie bookstore, remains a haven for alt lit. Amazon probably doesn’t care whether customers buy anything from its physical stores. The New Yorker takes a look at why China is cracking down…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
New York City’s St. Mark’s Bookshop has twice now been faced with closing over financial issues. But the store has a mysterious, rich benefactor who keeps pouring money into the shop. Despite the two lifelines, the store may close as…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
One Moore Books in Monrovia, Liberia, plans on publishing books aimed at children. The shop was founded by thirty-year-old Wayétu Moore, who fled Liberia as a refugee at the age of five. Three years ago, Jenny Milchman launched Take Your…
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From Self-Published Author to Publisher
Meredith Wild is a self-published author, a success story of Amazon’s DIY digital publishing revolution. Wild has been so successful, in fact, that she has since launched her own independent publishing house to handle her books and those from other authors.…
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This Week in Indie Bookstores
A huge new bookstore in the heart of Mexico’s drug cartel region hopes to combat ‘narco culture’ by offering an alternative, including classes for children and adults. Innisfree Poetry Bookstore in Boulder, Colorado has plans to move to a larger…
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The Power of Amazon
How much of the world has Amazon taken over? The Guardian talks with University Book Store and Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, two independent bookstores, the former located less than a mile away from Amazon Books: …manager Tracy Taylor pointed out that…
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Conversations with Literary Ex-Cons: Vickie Stringer
Vickie Stringer talks about her first novel Let That Be the Reason, her Triple Crown Publishing venture, life in prison, and making hip-hop literature.