Incidently, thank you for reading my earlier communication about how unhappy the independent writers were with your new policy for print-on-demand, those exclusive terms you are demanding, that your firm gets to do the print work. I does not do to get really independent people upset. They believe the mantra that then pen is mightier than the sword, or bullying force as it were.
We Don't Like Bullies
Normally, these things that go on in the business world are none of my business. And, this is the case for many independent writers around the world. I understand from statistic gleaned at the London Book Fair that the revolution in literature and communications has just started, but the dimensions are staggering. I can understand why Amazon at this time might be feeling a bit concerned that the strategies that it had adopted during the last decade might not nourish its growth during the decades ahead. Indeed, there are many alternatives to Amazon emerging in the frontiers of Internet communications. This is why I, and it seems many writers of the independent variety were puzzled that Amazon should attempt a policy of restrictive practices with regard to its marketing of books.
For Many of Us Books and Coffee, perhaps Starbucks and Borders or Chapters, go Together
Generally, we readers, for I speak also as a book buyer, and I have been using Amazon as well as other means to acquire the books of my library, will choose a supplier marketer of books because of the coffee we drink as we sit down and think about what we want to examine in the way of our future reading. Yes Amazon, it is the coffee that is important to us, and not the book seller. Well, we go to Chapters and Borders because we get good coffee there. We also get a feeling of sharing in a larger event and a happy one. We don't like the idea of our writers, our favorite authors and our new struggling writers being forced into a particular mold. We like the idea of freedom of choice, just as we like to choose between a wide variety of books. We will watch other booksellers to see if they implement restrictive practices, for this is what we see your action as, right or wrong. It was not fair trade.
We Now see Fair Trade in Book Manufacture as an Issue ... Thanks
Our real problem these days is that for all the new writers and new books coming onto the market, there just is not enough coffee shops and books stores where we can sit down an read, drink coffee and buy books. You see, we are social creatures and we like the atmosphere of our book stores, our Starbucks. What's more we are addicted to our coffee, which makes us even more choice oriented. It seems to me, as a coffee drinker and book buyer that sitting in front of the computer buying books is not very much fun. Its certainly not as much fun as sitting in a Starbucks cafe drinking my coffee and eating my blueberry oat bar. The thing is I am sure I will now look at the inside cover of the books I buy to see if they are Fair Trade. This is now a new issue for me. I will now post the Fair Trade logo on my books if they are POD printed, and I will try to only buy books that I see have Fair Trade POD certification. I might slip up a few times, but I am not perfect and I think a shift in my buying habits is possibly in order now I realize that writers are people who need to be treated fairly as well. The thought had never really crossed my mind before.
I have other thoughts to convey about Amazon's future role in the big issues of development of world communications and notions of trust and worldwide fair trade practices in a global economy, but this one seems a good start.