The warm welcome for Kobo's new e-reader is hardly surprising given the anti-Amazon feeling at the London Book Fair
Kobo launched a new e-reader at last week's London Book Fair: the Aura HD. Clearly taking aim at Amazon's ever-expanding Kindle lineup, the Aura comes with the highest definition screen of any e-ink device yet, and the fastest processor, meaning it can turn pages quickly and browse the web with ease. Coupled with Kobo's UK focus and its partnership with WH Smith, the lovable old stalwart of the high street, it's no surprise that it was warmly welcomed.
One of the other reasons Kobo is generally liked by the industry is that it's not Amazon. Far from the pleasantries of the Aura launch, another LBF event focused on Amazon's perceived dominance of the market, and particularly its suspected, but largely anecdotal, exploitation of the "grey market" in books. One Spanish publisher complained to Publishing Perspectives that Amazon had been selling imported versions of one of its bestsellers in Spain, thus cutting into its own sales. As a result, they're also counted as exports, meaning lower royalties for the author too.
The crux of the Spanish complaint is that Amazon always attributes such transgressions to errors of automation, which can take weeks to correct. In turn, Amazon will blame the complexity of global markets and supply chains. But the same kind of excuses can be brought to bear on even more disturbing events, such as Amazon's rapid parting of ways in February with Hensel European Security Services, a security company in Germany exposed as employing neo-Nazis and harrassing migrant workers. The network is so widespread, who really knows what's going on? A few lines of code in a near-boundless database, a stack of books in a vast warehouse, a couple of employees in a global corporation; all of these are linked by unaccountable systems, and should give readers, as well as publishers, cause for concern.
One of the other reasons Kobo is generally liked by the industry is that it's not Amazon. Far from the pleasantries of the Aura launch, another LBF event focused on Amazon's perceived dominance of the market, and particularly its suspected, but largely anecdotal, exploitation of the "grey market" in books. One Spanish publisher complained to Publishing Perspectives that Amazon had been selling imported versions of one of its bestsellers in Spain, thus cutting into its own sales. As a result, they're also counted as exports, meaning lower royalties for the author too.
The crux of the Spanish complaint is that Amazon always attributes such transgressions to errors of automation, which can take weeks to correct. In turn, Amazon will blame the complexity of global markets and supply chains. But the same kind of excuses can be brought to bear on even more disturbing events, such as Amazon's rapid parting of ways in February with Hensel European Security Services, a security company in Germany exposed as employing neo-Nazis and harrassing migrant workers. The network is so widespread, who really knows what's going on? A few lines of code in a near-boundless database, a stack of books in a vast warehouse, a couple of employees in a global corporation; all of these are linked by unaccountable systems, and should give readers, as well as publishers, cause for concern.
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