Official Website of Jim Perry

I don’t really like ebooks.  I like to open a real book with real pages.  I especially like to read from the standard page because it gives my eyes a much-needed respite from the glare of a monitor.  There’s something about an object that shoots light directly into your eyes that bugs you after a while.

I get why other people read ebooks.  But I don’t spend a great deal of time in airplanes, subways, buses or taxi cabs.  If and when I commute (a story for another time), I’m driving.  And I can’t read when I drive.  I don’t go a lot of places where I think, “gee, if only I could carry multiple titles on a single device!”  I don’t go through books that quickly.  I don’t know anyone who does, except maybe Michael Hickerson, the News Director at Slice of SciFi.  When I’m reading a book, I carry that single book with me until it’s finished, only to be replaced by another real book.  I’m not a technophile; I don’t get sucked in by every new wave of technology.  Frankly, I like bookshelves with books on them.  Sometimes I like remaining connected to “the old ways.”

That being said, Amazon’s latest form of douchebaggery, in its disagreement with publisher MacMillan, is going too far.  Rather than simply refuse to sell MacMillan’s ebooks until they felt they reached a proper accord, Amazon instead also restricted the sale of the print editions of MacMillan’s titles.  I won’t regurgitate everything I’ve read here.  I’ll provide a good link at the bottom of the page.  Suffice to say, the argument was about the pricing of ebooks.  MacMillan wanted to have the flexibility to allow market demands to adjust the prices just like every other market allows.  Amazon wanted a fixed price so they could move their Kindle ebook readers.  This is a simplified form of the story, but that’s all you’re getting from me.

As a person who considers himself of decent knowledge of the way the world and businesses work, this strikes me, as Jay Lake said, “like me beating up your kid brother because you owe me money.”  It also strikes me as a stupid thing to do to your customers.  If they cannot buy the book at your site, they’ll go elsewhere.  Of course, that was the intent all along, to make the customer angry at MacMillan.  Only it’s backfiring quickly in the age of Twitter and Facebook.  As a writer and prospective author, with my first publication pending, what am I supposed to think if the largest online purveyor of books decides willy-nilly not to sell a certain publisher’s titles?  What if it’s my publisher?

Now, I’ve purchased more than just books at Amazon, but it’s mostly books.  I’ve especially bought from Amazon if I can’t find a title in my Borders or Waldenbooks, but I prefer the bookstore.  I love browsing the shelves, picking up the books and glancing at the first few pages.  I like seeing which authors will be surrounding the spines with my name on them.  I like finding hardcover bargains inside Books-A-Million (hello, flexibile pricing!).  I enjoy the smell of a bookstore, especially if they feature a coffee shop.

Therefore, it is no strange thing for me to stop buying books from Amazon.

I’m not calling for a boycott here.  Amazon took a chance with a free-market business tactic.  If you don’t like what your supplier wants to charge, you have the right not to distribute them.  It’s their legal right, as outlined by other authors smarter than me (see link below).  But if your dispute is over ebooks, then why let it spill over to the print titles?  It’s not only sneaky and underhanded, but it’s also juvenile and pouty.  It’s rather unprofessional.  Meanwhile, the authors did nothing to Amazon, but they’re the ones being punished.  They’re the ones whose titles have gone unavailable for purchase of new titles.  New titles is where the royalties come from, not the sale of used books.

Granted, we are free to purchase those titles from other places, and that is what I recommend to everyone else.  It’s not a boycott, it’s called “taking your business elsewhere.”  It’s letting the free market take its course.  Amazon made a choice, and they ought to receive whatever benefit, or pay whatever consequence, that results naturally from that choice.

If you like to buy online, Powell’s is a great place to shop, plus many other great stores.  As always, if you have an independent bookseller in your area, fell free to frequent them.

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Brandon Sanderson provides a link salad to several different authors opining on this topic here:

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/blog/865/Amazonfail-2010-Mythmaker-Interview-Updates