Bookstores May Boycott New Amazon-Published Books 210
destinyland writes "Amazon has begun signing their own authors and then publishing the books themselves, leaving booksellers 'wary' as Amazon 'tries to have it all,' according to a Boston newspaper. The co-owner of an independent bookstore near Cambridge considered boycotting Amazon's new line of books, complaining, 'They are a huge competitor, and they don't collect sales tax, giving them an unfair advantage.' A children's bookstore noted that 'the pie is getting cut into fewer pieces. I'd be nervous if I were an adult book publisher.' Borders bookstore has already declared bankruptcy, leaving The Daily Show to joke that bookstores should simply become 'digital downloading' stations — or a 'living history' museum where future generations can learn what a 'magazine rack' was."
Re:The "tax excuse" for not adapting (Score:1, Insightful)
Amazon doesn't want to pay state taxes not because paying them would make them unprofitable, but because working out the taxes for 50 US states plus all the other countries they ship to (who would probably start demanding tax collection if Amazon caved to the states) is an unholy nightmare.
Aww, that's too bad, maybe their business model doesn't work then.
I see your point that book shops should quit whining and do something instead. You're absolutely right. But why should Amazon get a free pass when it comes to sales tax? That it's complicated because they are a centralised organisation shipping to multiple destinations, then it's really a case of taken the good with the bad. Otherwise they must split out their warehouses according to where they ship if it makes it easier for them.
Re:The book is in the mail (Score:4, Insightful)
The bottom line is: you go to the bookstore to buy a book. You don't need to go there to socialize or to ask advice.
I dunno. At the bookstore I used to buy from when I was living in England there was this hot twentyish blonde chick who was unable to do up the top half of the buttons on her blouse and would lean over when running your credit card through the machine.
You don't get that at Amazon.
Re:Well, what do they offer? (Score:4, Insightful)
You seem to be so smart!
And yet you're too stupid to realize why your comment is dumb.
A bookstore like you describe can't survive unless it's in an area where people actually care about those books. Small town bookstores sell the crap you mentioned, because it SELLS. Voltaire, Rousseau, and Sartre DON'T.
Signed,
someone who owns a comic book store in a small city and who is constantly nagged by so-called experts for focusing on manga (which sells) instead of used 80s comic books (which don't sell).
Re:Uh-Oh (Score:4, Insightful)
All these little demons are sitting at the foot of Exxon-Mobil. There's a universe of evil that is far more evil than can be written in a book.