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I bought a book on bookshop last week. It was $5 more than on Amazon, and bookstores got $1.80 from my purchase. I should have just bought the book on Amazon and mailed four dollar bills to my local bookstore—everyone would have come out ahead.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> authors get the same royalties whether the book is sold by amazon or other channels If the authors get the same, what's the problem? Everyone else is a middleman.
Not true. A publishing house is not meddling anything, is creating the “commodity“ along with the author. Creating a book is an art. It involves formation, sometimes translation, concept and design. It also fires a big productive chain that in some cases, for indie publishers at least, goes along with the ethos of the author. That’s why some very successful authors stick along with indies instead of penguin random. P…
I didn't say they were meddling - I said they were middlemen.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The cost is a factor, but the 7-10 day delay is far worse for me and it’s ~$10 shipping to get 2-3 day delivery. Also, do we know for sure the Ingram warehouse employees are better treated than Amazon?
To be honest, Amazon shipping works because it's a monopoly. They don't care how much you buy, it's almost the same for the company, they have to hire the same amount of staff, and same paid hours, at least in urban area. But for any independent store, they have to negotiate a rate with a shipper, which would charge a flat base rate, and overweight if there are any. So it can be difficult for them to offer quality an…
Disclosure: I work for a child company of Ingram
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not true. A publishing house is not meddling anything, is creating the “commodity“ along with the author. Creating a book is an art. It involves formation, sometimes translation, concept and design. It also fires a big productive chain that in some cases, for indie publishers at least, goes along with the ethos of the author. That’s why some very successful authors stick along with indies instead of penguin random. P…
> A publishing house is not meddling anything I didn't say they were meddling - I said they were middlemen .
Publishing houses are not a middleman in the same way walmart is a middle man. Before you get your book, it has been edited, formed and designed. Plus, and again, we’re talking indie here, it’s most likely part of a concept. Don’t you have a collection, a compilation or had ever bought a book by its cover?
Cool concept, but the books I compared were 20-50% higher than Amazon, and they charge another $3.50 to ship in 7-10 days.
Haven't read the article but like what you say, I tried to get a book from waterstones, a UK bookshop on my high street. I don't mind paying 20% or 25% extra as I don't like amazon and I do want to support local bookshops but when they cost that much more and they don't have it in stock and can't tell me when they will get it in, I say screw you and go with amazon.
How does it differ from previous IndieBound efforts?
The indiebound site now directs people to bookshop.org for purchases. Previously, it would direct you to an individual bookseller's website which may or may not have had online ordering available. Update: The changeover to bookstore.org has been postponed to June 1st to direct as much traffic to individual bookstores' websites as possible.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haven't read the article but like what you say, I tried to get a book from waterstones, a UK bookshop on my high street. I don't mind paying 20% or 25% extra as I don't like amazon and I do want to support local bookshops but when they cost that much more and they don't have it in stock and can't tell me when they will get it in, I say screw you and go with amazon.
In order to avoid amazon I get my books from abebooks. Sadly today I just found out Abebooks is owned by Amazon.
I bought a book on bookshop last week. It was $5 more than on Amazon, and bookstores got $1.80 from my purchase. I should have just bought the book on Amazon and mailed four dollar bills to my local bookstore—everyone would have come out ahead.