Can't Shake the Devil's Hand and Say You're Only Kidding

This week, we received a copy of a new book from an author who was interested in coming in to sign. The problem is that the book is from the new Amazon mystery imprint. They're making an agressive move into publishing and have lined up a list of new and known authors. The authors are understandably eager and excited and they have a hard time understanding when they run into our brick wall of NO. We start with my original message of explaination, then his reply and my return message. In the interest of everyone getting a better understanding of the issues and our point, here is the exchange ~ JB

Tuesday, June 21, 10:30 AM To: The Author

Sorry to say that we cannot offer you a signing. We cannot do anything to support, help or benefit Amazon. They're the enemy of independent bookshops and aiding them in any way - mainly ordering their books and selling them and promoting them - would be suicide. Things are tough enough without cutting our own throats. - JB Dickey, owner

Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:49 PM To: staff@seattlemystery.com

Dear JB, I understand your concerns. But please know that the opposite is happening nationwide. Amazon is reaching out to independents everywhere and offering to send hundreds of thousands of Amazon emails promoting an individual bookstore. Happily sending Amazon customers to independents. The results have been spectacular. Hundreds have been showing up at these events. It is a tremendous show of support for the independents.

I know it seems counter-intuitive. Amazon is easy to demonize. But I've seen the result of their work with independents. And it is impressive. They wouldn't be putting in this kind of effort if they were out to cut your throat. My little book tour is not about to make or break Amazon. I truly believe that Amazon wants both the independents and the online stores to thrive. If I didn't believe that I would not have signed with them.

And as an author with a bestselling book from a conventional NY publisher, I can attest to the new life Amazon is breathing into books. Whereas an event might bring in the same ten or twelve people, now we are seeing many times that amount. New customers who then tell others about the event and about the bookstores. It has been great for everyone, especially the bookstores.

I know your mind is set, and I do not expect my email to change it. But I do want you to know that my experience with Amazon as an author has been second to none. They are incredibly supportive and responsive and beyond author-friendly. They flew me to NY for a book signing at BEA, something unheard of for a first-time author in my genre. And the list goes on.

If I can do anything to help your bookstore please let me know. And if you want to talk more about this or anything else book-related please call me at 555-555-1212. The author I am touring with is an English professor at University State X, and I know he feels as strongly as I do about the survival of the independents.

Sincerely, The Author

6/22/11, 10:56 AM To: The Author

What you say is all well and good but you're looking at it from your perspective.

From my perspective, this is a huge corporation that has not only taken massive amounts of sales away from me over the years but also sales reps (which means the attention of publishers) and has waged a price war with the NYC publishers over their e-books. Remember when they removed ALL St. Martin's titles from their site in retaliation for St. Martin's insisting that they no longer undercut the price structure for e-books that the others were observing? Remember, too, that Amazon is the company that reached into the private devices of individuals and deleted e-books (one of our very good/long time customers is a computer worker and had downloaded a technical book from Amazon and make copious notes in her reader - Amazon deleted the 'book' and she lost all of her notes/ and then they also deleted - what was it, 1984? - from people's e-readers). And let's not forget that they appeared to buckle to outside pressure to remove gay and lesbian fiction and, when caught, blamed technical problems, not mendacity. I cannot tolerate censorship of any kind or by anyone. If these people are not intentionally evil, they come damn close to it by their actions and policies.

You want me to buy books from them? Pay them money to continue their efforts and to have books in my joint that clearly say "Amazon", to give them free advertisement as well?

If they're like NYC publishers, they'd demand that I open an account with them. That means giving them my personal info (this shop is a sole-proprietorship), tax numbers and bank accounts and, probably, the account information from three other businesses (either publishers and/or wholesalers) as references. Sorry - not a chance in hell I'd give all of that to Amazon. I do not trust them.

Even if I were to consider it, I haven't heard enough about their policies: what is the discount structure? are returns allowed and in what time frame? are they selling the same book at a discount that I can't/won't match or are they selling the books at the same price as I would?

I don't doubt that they're doing good things for you authors. It is fully within their interest to do so. First of all, they're launching a mystery/crime imprint and want to do all they can to promote it and its authors. Secondly, they want you to promote it and talk about it and to have more authors want to sign with them and to make more and more sales. I would bet that the intent is to take more and more business away from the major publishers who are very good at letting sales slip through their fingers.

Neither of us will change our minds. I'm the owner of the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. You are working for Mr. Potter. And Mr. Potter is always buying.

No one else may share my views. We're all doggedly independent. It might be that I'm extra-sensitive about Amazon since they started here. If it works for others and you, great. But it is not for me.  ~ JB

Update, June 29th:  Folks - if you're interested in following this debate, please read the blog posts that followed to see our answers to many of the questions raised by commentators. What you've just read is but the tip of the iceberg around which independents must navigate ~JB

the morning of June 23: On Dave's Thoughts

the afternoon of June 23: Point/CounterPoint

June 24: the Return of Point/CounterPoint

June 29: Spawn of Point/CounterPoint

July 3: Point/CounterPoint vs. Mothra

July 10: Point/Counterpoint: a story problem

Aug 8: Point/Counterpoint: It Isn't Just Us

Comments

[Alexandra MacKenzie]

Thank you for this. I am fully in your camp, and have vowed never to give another penny of my money to amazon. I applaud you for taking a strong stand and for drawing the line in the sand.

-Alex MacKenzie

[JBM]

Nicely stated--I completely agree!

[Matt Lutze]

Strong position and I am definitely a proponent of your effort to maintain not only your independence as a bookseller but supporting variety in the physical publishing field. One comment, however:

"Remember when they removed ALL St. Martin's titles from their site in retaliation for St. Martin's insisting that they no longer undercut the price structure for e-books that the others were observing?"

If I read this argument correctly, you're implying that Amazon was wrong for selling ebooks for what they were actually worth in the market, versus selling them for a price agreed to by the collection of traditional publishing firms?

I believe in other industries, "the price structure [...] that the others were observing" is called price fixing.

[Dave]

This is not surprising. I suppose the telegraph companies wailed and gnashed their teeth at the phone companies, too.

Amazon isn't beating you because they're an evil empire out to destroy the little guy. They're winning because they have a better business model, that works better for how customers actually live today.

I spend a not-insignificant portion of my income on books. I have an entire room in my house dedicated to them. And I haven't set foot in a bookshop in five years.

Why would I? You might have what I want, or you might not. I might be able to find it on your shelves or somebody else might have left it in with the romances. You might be able to order it, or you might not.

I gladly shell out my $70 a year for Amazon Prime. I make it back in shipping costs by early March at the latest. I don't have to leave my house. I can order pretty much anything that's ever been printed–if Amazon doesn't have it, their marketplace sellers probably do. I don't have to search for it, wait on special orders, or wait in line. And it all happens at prices with which you can't compete–not because Amazon is some kind of anti-competitive monopoly, but because their business model is just plain cheaper.

And that's not even mentioning ebooks. Despite my life-long addiction to books, both as a medium and as objects, I haven't bought a physical book in two years, and I don't miss them at all. It's a better experience, all around. At first, when something came out that I couldn't get electronically, I bought a physical copy and grumbled through reading it. Now I just don't read it. Eventually, publishers will adapt or die, and I won't have to worry about a lack of electronic versions. (And as a side note, even without books and music and movies and all the other entertainment detritus that did little but take up space and time, the Prime account is still a hell of a deal).

Look, I sympathize. The position you're in can't be very much fun. But I'm growing sick of people making out Amazon to be some kind of Wal-Mart. They're not. They're not just bigger or meaner or cheaper–they're flat-out better.

You've looked at the author's perspective, and the bookseller's perspective, and Amazon's perspective, and the publisher's perspective–great. Well, here's this consumer's perspective: I don't shop with them because they're brainwashing me and destroying the little guys; I shop with them because they have what I want, when I want, at a price I want. That's just not a service you–or any physical bookshop–can provide to me any more. From where I sit, they're not really your competitor–they're your successor.

[Mark Gaskill]

What Dave said.

[Margaret Evans]

Dave
"I don't have to leave my house."

hahahahahaha

Nice. Please stay there. God forbid that anyone prefer human contact to a computer.

[Johnny Shaw]

I should know better than to join in, but I've never been that bright.

As an AmazonEncore author (not the one that wrote the letter) and also a bookstore owner, I obviously have some opinions on the matter.

But it's your store (and a store that I have shopped at and will continue to shop at regularly) and I respect your personal convictions. Even if I don't agree with your argument.

The most unfortunate aspect is that these books will not be made available to your customers. So rather than providing your customers with titles they might enjoy and broadening their selection, you will be forcing them to go elsewhere and most likely to Amazon to purchase them.

I can't believe that my decision to publish my book with Amazon has made it impossible for me to support independent bookstores, as well. Does it have to be that black and white?

I buy from independent bookstores. I offer to sign with independent bookstores. I promote independent bookstores whenever I can. Hell, I am an independent bookstore.

Shouldn't it still just be about finding the best ways to connect good books with readers?

[Jim Thomsen]

One pragmatic consideration I raised, in part, on your Facebook page: Amazon's new Thomas & Mercer imprint is making a hard run at not only current mystery authors, but at the rights of classic works from the estates of deceased authors. (Just this week, it acquired the rights to reissue the entire Ed McBain list.)

Eventually, Amazon is going to sign an author with whom Seattle Mystery Bookshop has a longstanding personal and professional relationship. And, very likely, more than one. What will you do at that point? Will you tell someone you like and otherwise respect that they're "dead to you"? That, until they sign again with a publisher who operates under a more comfortably usurious business model, they and their works are banned from Seattle Mystery Bookshop?

I speak as someone who loves Seattle Mystery Bookshop and has patronized it for nearly the entirety of its existence. I love it and can't imagine life without it. But the world is changing, and everybody has to change with it. Standing outside it, on whatever principle, seems to me like an act that could well imperil your existence. And, perhaps selfishly, I don't ever want to see that happen.

[T. Doft]

I'm firmly on the side of the bookstore owner. In fact I find myself in a similar situation. I run a small horse buggy shop and I refuse to have anything to do with that wretched Mr. Ford.

Yrs,

Thaddeus Doft

[Judy Heller]

I saw that you pulled the back list for all the Thomas & Mercer authors books off your shelves when the imprint was announced. Does this mean you're going to pull every Ed McBain book from your shelves now, too?

A mystery Bookstore that doesn't sell Ed McBain.

That makes sense.

What are you going to do when Amazon is publishing hundreds of mystery authors?

I can't see how you possibly thought this through, unless you know you're going out of business anyway and decided to use this moment to rail against Amazon, who has done more for readers and authors in the last few years than the traditional publishers have done in the last 30.

I've always enjoyed your store, and I still buy books from you whenever I'm in, but I really disagree with your stance against Amazon. I can't see why you'd choose to fail rather than accept the new technology. I guess that's up to you, but I am going to miss you guys when you're gone.

[Z]

It'll be fun to check back in on "Dave" in about ten years when the "library" he's bought will no longer be readable on any device. Nothing changes faster than software and computer formats, and the shelf-life of what you're buying is very short. I have friends who "upgraded" to a newer version of a Kindle and already have trouble accessing the files they bought for their first versions. And that's going to get worse as years go by.

People buying e-books are trusting fools investing in a house of cards... and a wind is coming. You are throwing your money away, getting nothing but "access" that can be revoked at another's whim. You don't "own" what you're paying for.

Amazon and their e-books are also destroying literature by letting spammers flood the market. Kindles have removed the firewall that protected the world of letters from garbage, and now there's a flood. Plus, it's opened the door to file-sharing piracy, as happened to the music industry. Soon people won't be able to make a living as an author, and then what'll you read on your Kindle, Dave? Computer-generated spam?

Not me, brother. I'm sticking to paper, and if they ever stop printing books on it, then I just won't buy new books anymore. I'll never buy an e-book.

[Michelle Gagnon]

And what happens once Amazon gains the monopoly them appear to be seeking? Will they continue the 70/30 split with authors, or say, gee, now it's 30/70? Will they undercut the prices on their online books to squeeze out the remaining brick and mortar sellers? Amazon always has an end game, and I would bet that it's not favorable to either authors or booksellers. Good for you, JB. Keep the faith.

[Rick]

Sadly, in this sort of silly spat, I will bet on Amazon. Choosing not to sell a book, or in this case a lot of books, because you don't like the publisher only hurts the readers and ultimately the store, because readers will go elsewhere.

[Susan C Shea]

This is a painful and necessary dialogue. As an author, I'm riveted and ambivalent. Z makes a vital point, however. Technology changes so fast and new technology accommodates old for shorter and shorter times. Paper lasts 500 years.

[Ron]

Z,

As much as I love paper myself, ebooks have allowed me to test out new authors or read midlisters at an affordable cost. In this economy, every nickle counts.

As for Dave's books 10 years from now. Yes, technology will more than likely change dramatically in 10 years -- it has these last 10 -- but unlike iTunes for example, if you get a new Kindle or for some reason your stored copies are deleted, you can always download the books again. But truthfully, how many books do you reread? And loss of his digital library is less damaging than say a fire or flood destroying ones personal library. What do you do when you lose a book? If it's important, buy a new one.

Personally, I have my must buy authors who will get my print dollars, especially if in hard or trade format. I detest mass paperback anymore and an ebook is a perfect replacement.

And one last note Margaret, just because Dave chooses not to waste time shopping in a bookstore -- which most like hasn't shelved the book he's looking for -- doesn't make him antisocial or tethered to a computer. I've ordered books from my phone in a bookstore where they either didn't shelve the book or had no clue that it had been released. Two days later, not 2-4 weeks that a book store would promise, my book has arrived. Or seconds if it is an ebook.

If bookstores did vanish, I would deeply miss the discovery of browsing the stacks, but there will always be something to read.

[Alexandra MacKenzie]

Dave et al:
I was told a while back that June 25 is Support Your Independent Bookstore Day, if you are lucky enough to still have one.

I am. And I'll be there, plonking down my hard-earned cash for a book or three or twenty. I need those stores to survive. I've made a solemn vow never to give another cent to amazon. I know they won't miss me, and that they'll survive and thrive, but I do not want them to survive at the expense of brick-and-mortar stores because I crave the experience of the real over the virtual. I need to wander the aisles randomly, to find things serendipitously, not because a programmer at a corporation decided that if I liked "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", then surely I must also want to buy "How to Saw Wood."

I need to hold books. I need to smell them. I need to run my fingers over the cover. I want to flip through the pages, read the flap copy, feel the heft of the book in my hands. I want conversations about books -- where better than a bookstore? Even overheard conversations warm my heart -- the last time I was at my local independent, I saw a young girl eagerly grab a hardback and say, "It's the newest Penderwicks! I've been waiting for this!" while her doting dad stood nearby, smiling. Try recreating that experience at amazon with a Kindle.

Yes, it usually costs more to buy the same book at the independent store than it does online. So? You get what you pay for, and what you get online is a transaction. What you get in the bookstore is an adventure. Take your pick.

And get out to your local bookstore, not only on Support Your Independent Bookstore Day, but every day that you possibly can.

[Rdterpst]

This is Amazon wanting the best of both worlds. Yes, many other retailers print their own books. However, they're sold only in their own stores, not at other retailers.

In addition, and most dastardly, Amazon is trying to use other independent businesses to reap the benefits of having a physical location. Things such as author signings, in person promotions are benefits of having a physical storefront. In this case, Amazon is trying to arrange to grow their own sales without having to incur the expense of having their own store.

This is exactly why they have severed links with affiliates in many states - they want neither the responsibility of dealing with sales tax or of maintaining a presence in a state. Not only are they able to undercut competitors due to the advantage of not charging full taxes like their physical, local competitors, they're now trying to use their competitors to their own advantage.

And all this while saying "What, we don't understand your problem?" In this way, they're actually much MUCH more dastardly than Wal-Mart ever has been.

[Heather]

That is all well and good that you are sticking to your guns. I love independent bookstores, but I buy all my books of Amazon. I read around 150 books a year. Their prices just cannot be beat. I can't afford to pay full cover price for a book at an independent (I've yet to see one that charges anything below cover price unless they are remainders). I just received a preorder of 5 best selling author's books. Each one of them was around $13. That's AT LEAST $10 cheaper per book than any independents I know. If I were rich it would be a different story, but I have to watch my pennies and Amazon is where it's at. If I can find a good price from independents then the shipping costs eat up anything I've saved. I'd love to buy, but I can't afford $27.99 each for all my books.

[George]

You think "Dave" works for Amazon?

[Neliza Drew]

It is the Walmartization of books. And as we run out of bookstores in this very large county that seems like a third-world country and I listen to people pander about "jobs" this and "economic growth" that, I wonder if anyone has considered how Walmart drove out the guy who sold bread and the guy who sold mattresses and the guy who sold hammers, leaving those small-town neighbors broke and applying to be "greeters" at the giant box store at the far end of town. Do we really want our booksellers to join them? Are we really so myopic and so selfish and so "pragmatic" and invested in this "American Dream" myth that we call all pull ourselves up by our bootstraps if we're just smart enough and just work hard enough...? I mean, we've come so close to repeating the early 1930s again by repeating the early 1980s... maybe we really are that myopic and selfish and we will cling to our capitalistic ideals as we are squished under the boots of Big Business (who will not pay taxes and who will ship jobs and money overseas at every opportunity).

[Lelia Taylor]

Amazon was one--certainly not the only--cause of my store's downfall. Yes, you can get your books cheaper there but you and your community lose a great deal when indies fail.

Cheaper is not always true, either--we sold our books at significant discounts but, it's a fact, we didn't have the space to shelve every book in print. Do you refuse to ever shop at a grocery store because they don't carry every single item you want? Also, I'd love to know what store told Ron it would take 2-4 weeks to special order when it only took us 2-4 days.

Judy, this comment--"Amazon, who has done more for readers and authors in the last few years than the traditional publishers have done in the last 30"--totally misses JB's point. Amazon may be terrific for readers and authors but it is no friend to independent bookstores. Why should they be scorned when they choose to not support Amazon's business?

[Donna]

First of all, reading is an inexpensive hobby. I don't care of I shell out a little more and supporting a local business. I buy as much as I can from local retailers, books included. Another commenter made the point I wanted to make already, but I'll reiterate. Bookstores are where readings happen. Bookstores are where writer's groups meet. These brick and mortar stores and their owners have opened doors to authors and aspiring writers from their inception. So have libraries (but that's another story of funds being cut). If all the independent bookstores are gone, how will authors promote themselves? Yeah. I know. Blogs and social media and YouTube videos. But, like musicians, fans still want to see their fave artists in the flesh. I worked in eCommerce for many years, and Amazon was also a competition from the mom and pop stores my company worked with--so many of our customers were brick and mortar store owners that opened up online stores to supplement. At any rate, I don't own an e-reader. I still buy CDs too. I buy DVDs or rent them from a store. I dislike have to know what I am searching for -- I like when a book finds me. A two-dimensional picture of a book an Amazon does not do a book justice. Eleanor Browns The Weird Sisters is an example. This book has a beautiful, shimmery texture. I knew I wanted the book anyway, but had I been a casual browser, I would have picked it up and fell in love. Forget any of that if I read it as an ebook. I've always dreamed of having an impressive library in my home. I'm off to a good start. I want to show off my collection. If I had a Kindle and had one book or one thousand books, no one would know the difference. I hope with all my heart independents survive and that readers will continue to support them.

[Donna]

Sorry about the typos above. In my passionate fury, I didn't proof. Also, my leading sentence was meant to say that reading is inexpensive compared to other hobbies, such as auto restoration, etc. Compared to many other things I could spend money on, reading is cheap. I'm not going to comparison shop to find the cheapest book. Maybe for a textbook, but I'm no longer in school.

[Dave]

No, "George". I wish I did; an employee discount would be great.

There is a part of me–the part that cringes when somebody dog-ears a page or cracks a spine–that gets it. Bookstores good, smell of books good, feel of pages good, all that jazz. And then there's the rational part of me that sees that it's time to move on.

To be fair, Z has a fair point about technological progress. That's why I automatically de-DRM anything I buy, and archive it for later. (eBooks are much less of a worry than audio or video, too, because at the heart of every format, they're all just html). It'd be a bit silly to let fear of getting locked in somebody's walled garden keep you from enjoying progress, though.

[Matt Briggs]

I don't like the idea of a bookstore blacklisting authors or even publishers. The logic seems, well, illogical as well. I was struck by this lack of logic when I had a reading at Jackson's Book a while ago -- and was looking at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers awards designed to ostensibly support independent booksellers in the Pacific Northwest and writers in the Pacific Northwest, but almost all of the presses were New York Presses -- presses that have cut deals with big retailers with the big box book stores, discount clubs like CostCo. In the same vein, Seattle Mystery Bookstore does support Amazon each time it promotes an event of an author who is selling his or her books through Amazon. Why are we going after the readers here? Why not go after the publishers and authors? They are benefitting far more from the presence of the bookstore. Shouldn't they only offer books to sale through brick and mortar stores such as Seattle Mystery Bookstore (if we are going to apply this idea that responsible buying/selling can fix the problems of a technology/market change...)