I decided not to take my computer on my trip last week which gave me plenty of time on the way there and back to do some catch-up reading. (I tend to still read physical books more than ebooks so all the ebooks I end up acquiring here or there just sit on my ereader unread for ages.)
One that I think I received free via Wharton was called The Shopping Revolution by Barbara E. Kahn. (That’s an affiliate link, FYI, but you can just search for it as well.)
As someone who uses Amazon to sell my products it was a really interesting read. There’s a lot of discussion in indie world about how Amazon should police its store for copyright violations or people who trade and republish the same material, etc. etc. but what this book makes clear is that Amazon doesn’t give a flying you-know-what about any of that.
Turns out they have a stated approach of not taking any responsibility for knock-off products being sold on their site. (Yet another reason for me as a consumer to not shop there anymore, after having bought brand-name products that didn’t seem to be the same as the ones I had bought in physical stores. Now I know why.)
It also makes it very clear that Amazon believes in differentiating itself on low pricing. So for all us who bemoan Amazon’s many ways of controlling pricing, that’s a deliberate strategy on their part. The fact that they skew payouts to drive ebook prices below $10 for self-publishing is not going to change anytime soon. (Which sucks, quite frankly, and is why I chose not to list the ebook version of Excel Essentials for sale on Amazon.)
Anyway. About a third of the book is devoted to an in depth discussion and analysis of Amazon and I think it’s well worth reading if you’re going to do business with Amazon, which, as a self-publisher, is pretty much impossible to avoid.
M.L. Humphrey 