ABA runs a for profit division of their company called IndieCommerce which is responsible for selling books directly to customers. They are in the process of severing ALL ties with Amazon right now in their database and no longer offer any titles. In an e-mail message that went out Monday to indie bookstores that rely on the IndieCommerce Web platform, director Matt Supko wrote, “While Amazon is seeking to distribute its print catalog through conventional means, it seems that they are simultaneously pursing a strategy of locking in ebook exclusives which other retailers are not allowed to sell. IndieCommerce believes that this is wrong.” Not only has IndieCommerce decided not to list these titles, but it has created a new policy that states “only publishers’ titles that are made available to retailers for sale in all available formats will be included in the IndieCommerce inventory database.”
There are now four major companies that are joining the anti-Amazon club because most companies feel a bookseller should not be a publisher. Amazon intends on publishing their own books in both printed and ebook forms, phasing out the middleman. The Seattle based online company intends on still maintaining their relationship with Indie publishers and the big six. How everyone boycotting Amazon published books will actually effect the company remains to be seen. I feel that when you are apart of the Amazon ecosystem for books you are exclusively locked down into dealing with them.
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.
