from Shelf Awareness
Steve Bercu's 'Favorite Industry News of the Week'
"It may go without saying, but my favorite industry news of the week is the Amazon publicity stunt announced on the 6th. I admire their nerve in offering another demonstration of their interest in using indie relationships to capture market share. Of course, the failure of the 'offer' to include 26 sales tax jurisdictions might just be a coincidence, and setting a two-year term for commissions before taking our customers was a considerate touch. I think I will just stay with Kobo."
--Steve Bercu, co-owner of BookPeople, Austin, Tex., and president of the American Booksellers Association, in his bimonthly letter to ABA members.
Amazon Source: U.K. Indie Booksellers Skeptical, Too
Wednesday's unveiling of Amazon Source, a program through which indies and other retailers can sell Kindle e-readers and accessories, prompted a near unanimous response from independent booksellers in the U.S.--a blend of suspicion, irritation and sarcasm. The same has been true overseas, where U.K. indies anticipate a similar offer from Amazon, which already has a partnership with the Waterstones bookstore chain. Sheila O'Reilly, owner of Dulwich Books in London, told the Bookseller: "I think I would search my heart and find that morally I just couldn't stock the Kindle. I know Amazon employ lots of people in this country but they also have head offices in Luxembourg and Ireland for tax avoidance reasons and I couldn't ignore that. If it was more of a level playing field between Amazon and independents, then maybe I would think about it, but it isn't."
David Dawkins, manager at Pages of Hackney bookshop in East London, said Amazon "has made a point of aggressively diverting people's habit of using the high street. The company has made it clear that is what they want to do and I would be very surprised if this signals a change in policy towards independent retailers and the high street. I also wouldn't want our customers to think that we were doing trade with 'the bad guys.' I think we may lose quite a lot of respect if our customers thought we were sleeping with the enemy."
Noting that independent bookshops "are less than enthusiastic about teaming up with their capricious rival," the Guardian reported that Nic Bottomley, co-owner of Mr. B's Emporium, Bath, said, "I'd have no interest in selling Kindles because we don't do business with Amazon, and especially since its e-book business model is proprietary. Once you buy a Kindle you have to buy your e-books from Amazon, and we favor a more open model.... I'm just a firm believer that we should concentrate on what we do well as independent booksellers. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about what Amazon is doing, but I'm certainly not going to become their direct business partner."
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