New Twist on #amazonfail: Indie Bookstores Take a Hit

Censorship. It's an ugly enough word to make anyone shudder, especially in relation to banning books (at least for us).

If you haven't yet heard of the #amazonfail movement you're either
1) in a chocolate-bunny-induced coma, or
2) don't own a computer.

Either one of those and you probably won't care about this post. However, there are many people that are up in arms about (what seems) Amazon's censorship on some books the company deems questionable.

To give some background, a few days ago authors and readers started to notice that some of their favorite books were no longer showing up on Amazon searches. In brief, the books had been deranked by Amazon (and books with no rankings don't show up on Amazon). The reason? Amazon categorized them to have "adult content" (a definition of which no one seems to be able to extract from Amazon). Some of the books had gay and lesbian content. Some were romance novels. Some were young adult books. The LA Times did a great article on this. Head on over for the full details.

Anyway, the word spread quickly online via Twitter and the #amazonfail movement was created. Now we're hearing a lot of grumblings about people boycotting Amazon.

The unlucky victims in this?
Independent bookstores who use Amazon as their vehicle to sell books - either via an Amazon webstore or individual listings on Amazon.

Why do we care?
We're one of them. Our website is run through Amazon as a Webstore and it's our main venue for selling books.

After initially building a site and then realizing that it was going to take time-consuming conversions to work with our POS software, we had to make a switch to an Amazon site. And here we are, an Amazon seller.

And now we're stuck in the crossfire.

You wouldn't know that our site is an Amazon store until you get to checkout, where you're asked to login to your Amazon account. Now we're being told that people aren't going to buy from Amazon, which ultimately means they aren't going to buy from us.

We understand how upset you are. We disagree with censorship, too. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with the content of these books. We aren't asking you to discard your views and disregard what Amazon is doing. What we do ask is that you reconsider your boycott when shopping with independent bookstores, like us, who run their site through Amazon out of budgetary necessity.

There are other ways to fight this (just Google #amazonfail and you'll find pages of ways or visit this blog - Warning: the blog contains explicit language). And just maybe these other ways won't sacrifice the unassuming independent bookstores for a decision over which they had no control.

Are we killing books?

Remember a time without cell phones in every hand? A time when only joggers wore music headphones? Remember when you left work, that's where email stayed? Or, better yet, you didn't have email at work or home?

Remember?

It was called 1987.

In all seriousness, I recently had a discussion on Twitter that has left me disturbed. A fellow Tweeter gave a raving review about her new Kindle and how she probably wouldn't buy another "real" book again. EVER.

Of course, as a book seller, this left me quite disturbed. But as a book lover, it bugged me even more.

I haven't seen a Kindle. I haven't held one in my hands, so I can't really discuss the product itself. I can, however, discuss the theory of electronic books. I mean, as the way of the world now, doesn't it just seem so, I don't know...impersonal? Won't you miss the feel of an actual book in your hands? And the smell? What about the smell of books? (You book lovers know exactly what I'm talking about.) What about turning real tangible pages and the ability to place your bookmark in just the right spot? I don't foresee a cold electronic object fulfilling that need for books for me.

Look, I love technology as much as the next guy. I've been known to yell at my husband for not turning on his IM so that we can message when he is in his upstairs office and I'm working in my downstairs office. However, I just don't see myself ever choosing the ability to read a book off my telephone over holding a real book. At this point, it's just not that appealing. Reading a book is more than just the words for me. There's some connection that you get with a book, an author, when you hold the book. I've never, ever felt that way when holding an electronic device.

But that's just me.

Wonder what ever happened to all those 8-track tapes anyway?!?

April Book Review: Gordon Ramsay The Biography By Neil Simpson

April 2009 Book Review Gordon Ramsay The Biography by Neil Simpson

Reviewed By Jacqueline Wilson, The Book Blues

We Give It: 4 stars (for the interesting factor, NOT the writing.) Interesting look into one of television's most famous chefs. Covers background information that many people may not know (his professional football career, losing several important people in his life in tragic ways, his family and his involvement in charities). The writing leaves a little to be desired, but worth the read just to understand what made Gordon Ramsay who he is today. British author, British spelling. You've been forewarned.

In the fairness of full disclosure, I have to admit: I have a bit of a crush on Gordon Ramsay. I know it doesn't make sense, but crushes rarely do. He's not that great looking. He's rude to women. He shouts and swears like a sailor. It's just one of those Ethan-Hawke-singing-Violent-Femmes-in-Reality-Bites crushes. I can't explain it. It just is. Which is why I was a little conflicted about reading Gordon Ramsay The Biography by Neil Simpson. Exactly what I thought would happen did happen.

But we'll get back to that later.

Read the full review...

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