Welcome back to another exciting edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show. Today Editor Michael Kozlowski talks with Digital Book World‘s own Jeremy Greenfield about the Amazon/Hachette dispute and if publishers should circumvent their retail partners and sell books directly.
Amazon and Hachette has been the top story for a number of months, with new revelations by the New York Times. Many experts agree that we may see an end to this ongoing feud very soon. In the meantime, Amazon is trying to win over authors to their side by offering 100% royalties to Hachette authors. This is pissing off many people, including the American Authors Guild. If you missed any of the new developments in this saga, drop eveyrthing and listen to this show immidiately.
In other news, HarperCollins has started selling tangible books from their entire catalog, in addition to eBooks on their website. This follows the store within a store concept that Hachette made with Books-a-million to sell books directly. Many bookstores in Canada and the US are not doing that well and contract disputes with retail partners will only get more complicated as time goes on. Is the future of publishing selling books directly to readers and circumventing the established retailers?
Finally, should libraries call for a boycott against Simon and Schuster’s new terms? If a library wants to include the S&S catalog in digital format, they must also opt into selling the book on their website. Libraries as retail is a very polarizing issue, and the ALA administration is just happy they are finally onboard. Were negotiations done too quickly at the expense of libraries abusing the public trust? Is it time for a grassroots effort to boycott buying titles?
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Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.