Book retailers fed up with Amazon gaining market share have refused to sell books published by the online retailer.Barnes & Noble, the US’ biggest book seller by sales, is refusing to stock books published by Amazon, including a new book from Indian self-help guru Deepak Chopra. It is not known whether any Australian booksellers will join in the protest.
Amazon’s innovation has seen the online retailer invest millions back into publishing, a move booksellers claim will result in customers who buy an Amazon published book being offered other Amazon goods.
The Financial Times claims that the book chains object specifically to Amazon’s push to sign exclusive deals with authors that prevent other retailers from selling digital versions of their books which they believe will unfairly restrict access for customers.
If Amazon becomes a force in publishing, such exclusive deals could harm those retailers’ own ebook sales, which are increasingly important. Amazon Publishing is a more direct threat to publishers and agents, but their position is complicated by their reliance on its website to sell books.
Amazon’s push into publishing is an attempt to cut out the intermediaries between producers and consumers – in this case writers and readers – and fits within a broader diversification strategy that has already led to it providing logistics and cloud computing services.
