Brick-and-mortar stores want to be a local monopoly rather than compete nationally. Film at 11, quickly followed by a novelization and product tie-ins.

Remind me again how it is that retail exists? As a quarter of the economy or whatever?

You have a fairly limited selection of products. Many of which won't sell in any given store, so you're shipping them around from place to place. You rent and heat hundreds of locations. You pay to shovel the parking lot. You pay to insure against ambulance-chasing lawyers if someone trips in your store. You put stuff on shelves so people can walk out with it. Your employees are frequently underutilized. But, you need a complement of them in each of these locations every minute you have the doors open.

I can't see how Amazon (etc) isn't killing more than books/music/computer parts/shoes.

FirstNationalBastard: /Mmmmm.... Leela.

Don't care how much earlier she had the name, there's only one Leela.

I went to an actual library today so I'm getting a kick out of this article.

A buddy and I were trying to find a bookstore in Ann Arbor last week, it did not go well. The GPS took us to a Borders that has been closed down for a while now, and the other one ended up being a hotel. So we wandered around the mall and didn't find a bookstore there, either, but he did end up buying a silly shirt at Spencers, so it wasn't a total loss.

/stopping now before I start to ramble

As someone that bought a Kindle Fire and have given Amazon no money since, I am getting a kick.....

Out here at the end of the `long-tail' of marketing (a wanderer in the land of the impossible to get at any price 20yrs ago) I applaud the Amazonian occupation.

From TFA:
"Amazon infuriated booksellers with its price check app, which allowed customers to check out prices in brick-and-mortar stores and then get a discount if they bought from Amazon.
"That's what got people saying it's time to stand up to this and try to do something," says Dennis Johnson of Melville House Publishing"


I think I found your problem, Dennis.

/Amazon empowers customers to find the lowest cost? We can't have that! Information must be hidden from customers!

Dead for Tax Reasons: That's funny, I just ordered face of evil from amazon

The bad guy in that particular series is awesome.

serpent_sky: Mentat: So Amazon is doing things that the traditional publishers don't want to do and it's leading to success? THE HORROR!

It strikes me that the biggest problem with traditional retailers (and businesses) in this country is a reluctance, at the least, and the full-on resistance, to try new things, and to change with the times.

They want to do things as they always have because that's what worked. Even when it isn't working anymore because people find Amazon (or whatever) more convenient and cost-efficient, they just call Amazon "evil" rather than say "hmmm. What we do isn't working; what they do is. How can we be more like them?"


Media in general is still completely farked by digital distro. A very few companies, all of them unrelated to media originally, have it on the right track. itunes etc (although I think spotify et al may give itunes a run for its money...)

A lot of these old line publishers are ran by NYC dynasties who can't/won't adapt. Oh well.

I haven't bought an ebook through a major publisher on amazon for months - in most cases the physical paperback is now cheaper to buy in a b&m. So somehow even though publishing houses have cut out all of the tree cutting/transporting/processing/printing/shipping/etc costs by issuing it in a digital format, the digital format is still more expensive than a physical book? Fark that. The downside to this being that most of the smaller publishing/self published books i have read lately have been kinda ho hum.

Amazon is really good when it comes to textbooks. Helped me save money for college and other things.

Also I enjoy their pre-ordering system saving me money as I pre-ordered the Sailor Moon manga reprints when they came out last September.

Borders can blame themselves for making a deal with Amazon. They should have started their in-house online store. Now they no longer exist.

Got my mom a Kindle touch for Christmas because the local library checks out Kindle books. It sure is nice, get home see if any thing I put a hold on is available and read.

Now I am contemplating getting a Kindle because I have used hers a lot already.

Providing better value for customers != evil. Quite the opposite, actually.

Pardon me if I don't shed a tear for the publishing industry. They were more than happy to charge people out the wazoo for everything and pay authors as little as possible prior to Amazon coming in and eating their lunch.

FirstNationalBastard:
/Mmmmm.... Leela.

Seconded.

Amazon Prime: The best deal on the internet. I ordered some books on Saturday, and they arrived on Sunday. Free shipping. I didn't even know anyone delivered on Sundays.

That's not even mentioning the LED 3D TV I bought, which was $100 less than any store, with free delivery (even took it out, made sure it worked) and no taxes. That saved me $350 total probably.

I now by clothes, iPad chargers, gifts for out of town relatives, pretty much anything on Amazon now. It's awesome.

The same publishers who jacked the price of new e-book releases to cost, on average, 6 dollars more than you can get the same hardcover from Amazon? Those publishers?

Go fark yourselves.

Famous Thamas: Pardon me if I don't shed a tear for the publishing industry. They were more than happy to charge people out the wazoo for everything and pay authors as little as possible prior to Amazon coming in and eating their lunch.


I may just be crazy, but I deal with publishers and related quite a bit. The profit model is going to die. Dead trees are going away as mass marketing consumables. Oh sure, you'll still be able to buy very nice "collectors editions" for books that you really care about and want to show off, but those make very little money for the industry.

Given that you no longer need a company with a very large and expensive printing press and distribution warehouses to get the written word out, the publishers should instead focus on the other service they provide that actually IS useful and not easily replaced: editing and curating.

When anyone can self-publish, there is guaranteed to be a shiat load of garbage out there, but then also the occasional gem in the rough.

I will gladly pay for:
- A book (digital) with much of its money going straight back to the author.
- A monthly review that curates all the crap that's going to be self-published. Hey, maybe if I were a publisher I'd get into the business of do this, edit the above book nicely and then recoup some fees... and scrap the printing press.

I won't be paying for:
- Dead trees

I Mash Grains: As someone that bought a Kindle Fire and have given Amazon no money since, I am getting a kick.....

I've been debating getting an e reader. How do you like the fire? And how are you not giving them teh monies? If its torrents, meh, I can do that without a reader.

My biggest hurdle in getting a reader is simply that I don't read enough to justify the price tag as compared to going to half priced books and getting a couple cheap paperbacks that might last me a week (and then I won't read anything for another 6 months because I don't have time to fit in all my hobbies).

Sorry, but the act of disseminating information to the people, whether it is books, or magazines, or newspapers or entertainment, is no longer an art that is limited to the few that have the resources to carry it our (publishers). The big publishers need to figure that out.

If you say "This book if $40" and everybody says "No, too high" then you either sell it cheaper, or you get out of the business.

Cry me a farking river. Look at what booksellers and publishers are doing to libraries and universities. We're supposed to feel sorry for them?

AfroX: I haven't bought an ebook through a major publisher on amazon for months - in most cases the physical paperback is now cheaper to buy in a b&m. So somehow even though publishing houses have cut out all of the tree cutting/transporting/processing/printing/shipping/etc costs by issuing it in a digital format, the digital format is still more expensive than a physical book? Fark that. The downside to this being that most of the smaller publishing/self published books i have read lately have been kinda ho hum.

There's some good deals on Amazon for major publisher books. Sometimes. Like Carlin's last words for 6 bucks right now. But I do most of my book shopping at used book stores and bargain bins at the independent and B&N. I'm not getting a Kindle or similar until they're cheaper than the physical.

If they're going to hit Amazon with monopoly abuse accusation, they will first have to prove that consumers are being hurt by Amazon's practice... good luck with that.

Romero News Flash to RIAA, MPAA and Book Publishers, Kodak - Technology just might be your friend to make your business stay afloat.

Before Amazon and Oprah, book sales were pretty stagnant so what do you want?

Also: could someone explain why Librarians would be upset by Amazon? More buyers less checking out?