Onnesha Roychoudhuri, on Amazon’s cutthroat business tactics, and how they’ve been systematically gutting the publishing industry:
Cheap books are easy on our wallets, but behind the scenes publishers large and small have been deeply undercut by the rise of large retailers and predatory pricing schemes. Unless publishers push back, Amazon will take the logic of the chains to its conclusion. Then publishers and readers will finally know what happens when you sell a book like it’s a can of soup.
Truly a troubling piece. Reminds me of my days in college when my English prof used to say, “When you buy books at Barnes & Noble/Borders, you’re paying to have fewer choices in the long run.” We are now seeing that phenomenon again, only Amazon has isn’t as sympathetic to publishers as those major bookstores.