The Boston Herald looks at the decision bookstores have to make over whether to carry printed books from the new publishing imprint Amazon has launched.
Dana Brigham, co-owner of Brookline Booksmith, an independent bookseller in Brookline, has doubts about carrying books bound by Amazon at her Coolidge Corner shop.
“They are a huge competitor, and they don’t collect sales tax, giving them an unfair advantage,” she said. “We’ll have to think about it.”
These concerns aren’t new, of course. In July, I covered one bookstore owner’s firm commitment not to have anything to do with Amazon-published books, and even before that Amazon lost out on the auction to publish a series offered by self-publishing phenomenon Amanda Hocking due to the fear that bookstores might not be willing to carry Amazon’s books.
As for what effect bookstores’ decisions will have on the titles’ success, we’ll just have to wait and see. But given that Amazon is able to offer better prices than bookstores even on books it doesn’t publish, I suspect the company will not exactly be crying in its beer whatever those bookstores decide.
(Found via Slashdot.)
The real question is will BAM and B&N carry the books? If small indie bookstores refuse to carry a book, it may not make much of a difference to authors; but if BAM and B&N decline as well . . .